During Huawei Connect 2022 which was hosted in Dubai for the first time under the theme of “Unleash Digital with Cloud Native”, Huawei Cloud has launched 10 new services. In his speech, William Dong, President of Huawei Cloud Marketing, pointed out that in the future, applications, data, AI models, and digital content will become the core assets of an enterprise. Enterprises will develop, run, and manage these resources in a converged pipeline, and cloud native will be the technology to help businesses navigate uncertainty. Dong also released the Cloud Native 2.0 Architecture White Paper at the event which can be viewed here: https://www.huaweicloud.com/intl/en-us/about/cloudnative2_0/whitepaper.html
Teletimes International had the chance to exclusively interview William Dong who shared with us some valuable insights in his field.
Khalid Athar: Please tell us a little about the Huawei Cloud approach?
William Dong: Huawei Cloud approach is all digital, all cloud, AI-driven, and providing everything as a service: Infrastructure as a service / Technology as a service / Expertise as a service. Through ‘Everything As Service’ model, Huawei is translating the company’s 30 plus years of ICT know-how into a wide variety of cloud services, including Infrastructure as a Service, Technology as a Service, and Expertise as a Service.
The Huawei Cloud Everything-as-a-Service proposition envisions a future where all infrastructure and applications will be cloud-based. We encourage enterprises to embrace AI fully and let data play its part in supporting operational decision-making as part of Technology as a Service.
KA: What level of presence does Huawei Cloud have on a global level?
WD: Huawei Cloud has a very widespread presence around the globe. Huawei Cloud operates in more than 170 countries and regions, offering 250+ cloud services and 210+ solutions.
Now the fastest-growing cloud services provider in the world, Huawei Cloud has attracted more than 3 million developers, 28,000 consulting partners, 9,000 technical partners, and released 7,400+ KooGallery products five years since launch.
Our vision is committed to growing with enterprises and partners in the Middle East, helping the region with its digital transformation through advanced technologies.
KA: What kind of products/services are you focusing on promoting at recent tradeshows such as GITEX?
WD: We are focusing heavily on innovative products and technologies that help us and our partners lead from the front of the technology sector. In the cloud space, we have a proper focus on AI and various products related to the metaverse. We have also brought the Meta Studio to the market whilst promoting our cloud native and AI products involving many more developers.
With Huawei Cloud serving as the foundation, Huawei will enable developers to grow and contribute to a thriving developer ecosystem through developer programs like the Huawei Cloud Developer Program.
KA: How the year 2022 been so far?
WD: We have maintained rapid growth in the first half of 2022 during which Huawei Cloud released 15 innovative services, covering Infrastructure as a Service, Technology as a Service, and Expertise as a Service. The year 2022 is important due to the significant collaboration frameworks of up to USD17 million of direct investment, which are the GoCloud and GrowCloud.
KA: Can you tell us more about GoCloud and GrowCloud?
WD: The “Go Cloud, Go Global” plan is focused on Everything as a Service. Huawei Cloud will share its localized experience acquired in the services for more than 170 countries and regions, as well as insight into businesses and industries in major regions, and contribute its technologies and solutions to a global ecosystem. Such effort will help more enterprises use cloud better and go global more successfully.
The GoCloud framework is aimed at cultivating partners competency while helping partners to build robust solutions and services utilizing Huawei Cloud which should translate into more value for customers comprised of Startup Programs, Developer Programs, SaaS Partner Programs, HMS Ecosystem Support Programs, and Marketplace Programs.
On the other hand, GrowCloud is aimed to help partners expand customer coverage and accelerate sales growth to the benefit of both parties. This will consist of Cloud Distributor Program and Cloud Solution Provider Program.
KA: Would you like to explain Huawei’s approach around Everything as a Service model?
WD: For Infrastructure as a Service, we offer one global network, so you don’t need to build your own data centers. This network gives you 50-millisecond access to our cloud services from anywhere on the globe. We will launch new Regions in Ireland and Indonesia. By the end of this year, we will have 29 Regions and 75 availability zones to cover more than 170 countries and regions.
For Technology as a Service, we provide four pipelines: DevCloud for software development, DataArts for data governance, ModelArts for AI development, and MetaStudio for digital content production. We build the latest digital concepts, such as DevOps, DataOps, MLOps, and MetaOps, into our pipelines and help industries embrace digital by leveraging future-proof technologies.
For Expertise as a Service, we open up our years of industry expertise on our cloud. We pack all this into MacroVerse aPaaS for easy access by enterprises, so as they go digital, cloud makes sure they learn from the best without starting from scratch
KA: How important is a “cloud-native” approach in today’s world?
WD: Extremely important. A cloud-native is more technologically complex, but for cloud services, it is important and worth it.
First of all, cloud native is much more friendly to the cloud applications. It has an advanced approach to how it utilizes the same resources. The resources used are scalable and flexible. Nowadays, some apps would need to have an update every day and sometimes you might need proper connectivity immediately for other reasons. If the apps need to update or upgrade every day, cloud native approach can make that process very easy. This is where we step in or I’d rather say we stay ahead of the other solution providers.
