Kuala Lumpur · serving Malaysia & Thailand
Managed Cloud Services
Aqvantiq is a multi-cloud AI system integrator in Kuala Lumpur that runs day-2 cloud operations for organizations in Malaysia. On a monthly retainer we handle monitoring and alerting, patching and upgrades, backup and restore drills, incident response, Terraform-driven changes, Kubernetes upkeep and cost control — across AWS, Google Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Azure and DigitalOcean, in your own cloud accounts.
- Monthly retainer, agreed scope
- AWS · GCP · Huawei Cloud · Azure · DigitalOcean
- Changes through Terraform, not the console
- Your accounts, your repository
Managed cloud services, explained
Managed cloud services are the day-2 operation of cloud infrastructure by an external team: monitoring and alerting, patching and version upgrades, backup and restore testing, incident response, access and security hygiene, change execution and cost control. It is bought as a monthly retainer with agreed scope, coverage hours and escalation, not as a project with an end date.
Most cloud estates are not badly built. They are unowned — the person who set it up moved on, the alerting was never tuned, and nobody has restored a backup since go-live. A retainer gives those things a named owner. The repository, the runbooks and the accounts stay yours throughout.
What the managed cloud retainer includes
Monitoring and alerting, patching and version upgrades, backup and restore drills, incident response with a named owner, changes executed through Terraform, Kubernetes cluster upkeep, access and security hygiene, and a monthly cost review. Scope and coverage hours are written into the retainer, so both sides know what is covered before anything breaks.
Monitoring and alerting
Dashboards for the signals each workload fails on, thresholds tuned until a page means something.
Patching and upgrades
OS and package patching in agreed windows; database and cluster upgrades against the supported sequence.
Backup and restore drills
Coverage checked against the recovery point you need, restores rehearsed, real restore time written down.
Incident response
A named owner per incident, agreed severity levels, and a written cause once service is restored.
Changes through code
A Terraform merge request with a reviewed plan, applied by pipeline. Console changes get back-filled.
Kubernetes upkeep
Cluster and node pool upgrades, ingress and certificate renewal, resource limits kept honest.
Access and security hygiene
IAM review, secret rotation, dormant account removal, pipeline credentials moved to short-lived OIDC.
Cost management
Monthly review against real usage: idle resources, storage lifecycle, commitments, egress, log retention.
How this differs from a hosting-centric provider
Many Malaysian managed providers grew out of hosting and colocation, so their strength sits at the server and data-centre layer. Aqvantiq operates the hyperscaler control plane instead: identity, networking, managed databases, Kubernetes, serverless and cost. Changes go through Terraform and code review rather than a console, and the repository stays yours.
| Dimension | Hosting-centric managed provider | Aqvantiq managed cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Primary layer | Virtual machines, colocation, network and hardware. | The cloud control plane: identity, networking, managed databases, Kubernetes, serverless and cost. |
| How changes happen | Raised as a ticket and applied by hand in a portal. | A Terraform merge request with a reviewed plan, applied by pipeline. |
| Cloud coverage | Usually one hyperscaler, plus their own data centre. | AWS, Google Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Azure and DigitalOcean under one retainer. |
| Who does the work | A tiered support desk, whoever is on rotation. | Senior engineers who know your estate. Escalation is one step, to the founder. |
| Billing model | Capacity resold to you with a margin on top. | Your cloud accounts, your billing relationship, a fee for the engineering. |
| What you keep if it ends | Configuration lives in their platform. | The Terraform repository, runbooks and dashboards, in your own accounts. |
Neither model is wrong. A rack of virtual machines that rarely changes suits a hosting provider. A hyperscaler estate with managed databases, containers, pipelines and a bill that moves every month needs someone who works at that layer.
Five clouds, one retainer, one named owner
AWS, Google Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Azure and DigitalOcean — under one retainer, one alerting standard and one point of contact. Genuine multi-cloud coverage that includes Huawei Cloud is rare in the Malaysian market. A mixed estate should not need two contracts, or two vendors arguing about whose side of the boundary an incident sits on.
One named owner per incident
Alert to resolution, with one step of escalation above them. Severity levels, coverage hours and response targets are agreed in the retainer before anything breaks.
Coverage, stated honestly
Standard coverage is Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (MYT). Out-of-hours cover is scoped and priced for what it is — named engineers on call — rather than printed as a blanket "24/7".
Keeping cloud costs under control
With a monthly review against actual usage, not a dashboard nobody opens. We look at idle and oversized resources, storage lifecycle, commitment coverage such as Savings Plans, Reserved Instances or committed use discounts, egress patterns and log retention. Findings come with an owner and an expected saving, and get executed as changes.
Savings are applied as code, so next quarter starts from the corrected baseline instead of drifting back — the path described in DevOps as a Service. Full guide: cloud cost optimization and FinOps for Malaysian enterprises.
Where the reporting itself is the bottleneck, it can be automated: we replaced a manual download-transform-pivot FinOps cycle with a pipeline that runs for about 20 US cents per invoice — read the case study.
Taking over an environment you did not build
Read-only access first. We inventory what exists, map it against what the applications need, test the backups, and produce a gap list ranked by risk. Anything urgent is fixed before the retainer starts, so nobody inherits a landmine quietly. Access is then escalated to exactly what the agreed scope requires.
1. Read-only first
Read-only access first, and an inventory: accounts, networks, workloads, databases, identities, backups, spend.
2. Gap list
Compared against what the applications need. You get a gap list ranked by risk, with an estimate per fix.
3. Fix the landmines
An untested backup, a public database, an expiring certificate, an unsupported cluster version — fixed first.
4. Take the wheel
Access escalated to what the scope requires, runbooks and alerting in place, monthly reporting starts.
Frequently asked questions
Can't find your answer?
Ask it directly and an engineer answers, usually the same working day.
Ask an engineer What are managed cloud services?
Managed cloud services are the day-2 operation of cloud infrastructure by an external team: monitoring and alerting, patching and version upgrades, backup and restore testing, incident response, access and security hygiene, change execution and cost control. It is bought as a monthly retainer with agreed scope, coverage hours and escalation, not as a project with an end date.
Do you provide 24/7 support?
Standard coverage is Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (MYT). Out-of-hours and weekend cover is agreed in the retainer rather than assumed, and priced for what it really is: named engineers on call. We would rather write down the coverage you are buying than print "24/7" and hope you never test it.
Can you manage an environment you did not build?
Yes, and most of them are. We take over with read-only access, inventory the estate, test the backups and hand you a gap list ranked by risk before the retainer starts. Urgent findings are fixed first so nobody inherits a landmine quietly.
Do we keep control of our own cloud accounts?
Yes. The accounts, the billing relationship with the cloud provider and the Terraform repository stay yours. We work through scoped roles and named users inside your tenancy. If the retainer ends, you keep a documented, reproducible environment rather than a dependency.
Can you manage Huawei Cloud alongside AWS or Google Cloud?
Yes. Mixed estates are normal and we cover them under one retainer with one point of contact. Genuine Huawei Cloud capability is rare among Malaysian providers, which is exactly why split estates usually end up with two vendors who each blame the other. See our Huawei Cloud services.
Who owns an incident when something breaks?
One named engineer, from alert to resolution, and the escalation path above them is one step long. Service restoration comes first and root cause after — never instead. Every incident closes with a written cause, contributing factors and follow-up actions with owners, and the permanent fix lands in Terraform or the pipeline rather than in someone’s memory.
What does the monthly cost review actually cover?
Spend by service and environment against last month, rightsizing candidates based on observed utilization, commitment coverage and expiry dates, storage class and lifecycle rules, tagging quality, and log and metric retention. Findings come with an owner and an expected saving, then get executed as changes. The FinOps guide for Malaysian enterprises sets out the full method.
Do you offer managed cloud services in Thailand?
Yes. The same group of engineers deliver across Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, so a group with entities in both countries runs one operating standard rather than two providers with different runbooks. See managed cloud services in Thailand.
Related services
DevOps as a Service
CI/CD pipelines, Terraform and Kubernetes, built by the engineers who then operate them.
Cloud Migration Services
Assess, plan and execute a move to AWS, Google Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Azure or DigitalOcean.
Cloud Architecture Consulting
Landing zones, guardrails and cost-aware design for the environment we operate.
Managed Cloud in Thailand
The same operating standard for Thai entities, delivered by the same team.
On call for your cloud tonight
If cover today means "the person who set it up, and they left", start with a read-only review of what you are running.