Nothing better reflects the way the Cloud is changing the traditional parameters of telecom operators than BT’s presence at this morning’s Cloud South East Asia keynotes in Kuala Lumpur.

Thanaraj Kanagalingam, BT’s regional solutions director, joined the likes of SingTel, Telekom Malaysia and MDeC in presenting at the well-attended conference, where he set out BT’s strategic presence in the region, itself a microcosm of the UK’s most recognisable telco’s increasingly global strategy and reach.

In South East Asia specifically, BT has been active in the networked IT business for a number of years, via acquisitions of local players such as Frontline (Singapore-based IT consulting and services company), which has driven them towards an ICT and telecommunications convergence play.

Subsequently BT has extended itself into the contact centre line business – with very strong links to the airline industries – and is  now moving into what it is called ‘the Cloud of Clouds’ – positioning itself through partnerships with existing Cloud service providers, and providing a new array of digital services to enterprise customers.

“It’s all about network connectivity,” explained Kanagalingam, answering questions after his keynote. “A lot of enterprises here want to go out to a global market, so when they establish themselves in China, in India, and so forth, they need to have that connectivity. BT provides this from a network perspective, from a telco perspective. We partner with local partners in each of these regions but at the same time leverage our traditional framework.”

A focal point of BT’s global appeal is security (a topic that has predictably dominated numerous discussions at Cloud South East Asia). Specifically, the telco looks to draw on its strengths to provide a more secure connectivity to enterprise customers. “For us,” explains Kanagalingam, “service is encompassing hybrid intelligent network, world class leading security coupled with PAYG cloud computing solution.”