H13-523 education - HCNP-Cloud-FCDS Updated: 2024

Huawei Technologies said it will provide cloud, 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to Chinese conglomerate Hailiang Group, a leading player in the global copper pipe market, as the US-sanctioned telecommunications giant seeks to diversify its revenue streams through deals with traditional industries.

Under a strategic partnership signed on Monday, the two companies will work together on the research and application of digital management solutions, advanced manufacturing, smart education and green energy, among other areas, according to an announcement by Huawei.

Hailiang, one of the world’s biggest copper pipe producers with business interests across mining, education, agriculture and real estate, has been working with Huawei since 2022 on its digital management and cloud migration strategies, according to the company.

Focus on digital links as China releases 10-year belt and road blueprint

Hailiang operates copper tube and pipe production facilities in the US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. The company is considered one of the champions of Beijing’s “going out” strategy to promote Chinese enterprises overseas. In the US, it has a plant in Sealy, Texas. In June this year, it started building a copper sheet factory in Indonesia with a planned annual output capacity of 100,000 tonnes.

The partnership with Huawei will help accelerate Hailiang’s digital transformation, Zhang Pingan, chief executive of Huawei’s cloud unit, said on Monday.

Huawei will provide technologies in cloud computing, big data, AI foundation models, and 5G to facilitate Hailiang’s digital transformation, according to the statement.

The latest deal comes amid Huawei’s ongoing efforts to forge deeper ties with traditional industries and corporations to diversify its revenue streams, after being hit by US trade sanctions in 2019.

To work closer with its enterprise clients, Huawei established so-called “legions” in October 2021, to connect with a variety of industries. These cross-departmental groups, called juntuan in Chinese, focus on digital transformation products and services for smart mining, customs and ports, technologies to reduce energy consumption at data centres, smart systems for highways, and photovoltaics.

The enterprise business was the fastest-growing segment among Huawei’s three core units, with revenues surging 30 per cent year on year in 2022 to 133 billion yuan (US$18.7 billion), compared to a 12 per cent decline in its consumer group and a marginal 0.9 per cent gain for its carrier business.

In July, Huawei unveiled the 3.0 version of its Pangu AI model, joining a cutthroat race among Chinese companies on generative AI, but with a focus on industrial uses in sectors including coal mines, finance and government.

Aside from helping traditional industries, Huawei has made a foray into the electric vehicle sector, with the high-profile launch of Aito cars, a joint brand with Chinese electric carmaker Seres. It also offers smart car components to the auto industry.

After a challenging few years following the pandemic and its long-lasting effects, Huawei says it had a pretty successful 2023, with expected sales revenue hitting more than 700 billion yuan (over $98 billion).

Though the figure sits below pre-pandemic levels, Huawei chair Hu Houkun credits this latest result to strong performance across the company’s terminal business, digital energy and cloud business, and smart car solutions.

Frost & Sullivan, a global research and consulting firm, recently released the Emerging Asia-Pacific Hybrid Cloud Market Report 2022 report. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of how the emerging hybrid cloud market developed and how market share was distributed in Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Thailand, and other countries or regions. In this report, Huawei Cloud was named a “Leader” and positioned ahead of all other providers in terms of market performance, technical innovation, and customer services. Huawei Cloud also took No. 1 market share in Hong Kong (China), Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives.

Frost & Sullivan

According to the report, cloud-based deployment, especially hybrid cloud deployment, is the top choice for government agencies, financial institutions, operators, and other large organizations in Asia Pacific to reduce operational expenditure (OPEX), Excellerate scalability and resilience, enhance security and intelligence, and promote global carbon neutrality.

Also, the report stated that a comprehensive solution, robust data security and compliance systems, outstanding customer support, and continuous innovation are key success factors for hybrid cloud providers. Huawei Cloud has always excelled in these factors, with their leading technologies, profound industry-specific expertise, and comprehensive systems for serving government and enterprise customers. According to the report’s assessment of 12 major hybrid cloud providers, Huawei Cloud edged out the competition in market performance, technical innovation, and customer services, which made them a Leader in the emerging Asia-Pacific hybrid cloud market.

Huawei Cloud

Huawei Cloud Stack: A hybrid cloud made for enterprise

Huawei Cloud provides an industry-leading hybrid cloud solution, Huawei Cloud Stack, to help large enterprises dive into cloud and accelerate intelligent upgrades. Serving as on-premises cloud infrastructure, Huawei Cloud Stack improves security and compliance. Synchronized with services from the Huawei public cloud, it also allows for continuous iteration. To inspire technological innovation and create new value for more industries, Huawei Cloud Stack has taken three approaches:

• Trusted, resilient cloud native infrastructure: Huawei Cloud Stack provides a range of scenario-specific disaster recovery (DR) and backup solutions, which enhance service reliability. It provides a comprehensive security architecture with SecMaster at the center and 7 more layers of protection surrounding it — a solid solution for end-to-end security. And Huawei Cloud Stack’s intelligent cloud management platform, ManageOne, centrally manages services, operations, and maintenance. It supports up to five levels of virtual data centers (VDCs), enables fine-grained permissions control, and provides a broad set of dashboards for more efficient management.

• Extensive cloud services to make innovation easier: Huawei Cloud Stack delivers ever-evolving cloud services as it shares the same DNA as the Huawei public cloud. Huawei Cloud Stack is the industry’s first hybrid cloud that can be used to deploy large models. It provides the industry’s most comprehensive AI pipeline including computing platforms, cloud services, development suites, and professional service — an AI pipeline that can help enterprises build their own large models in one stop.

• Industry know-how for shared excellence: With profound experience enabling cloud transformation across industries, Huawei Cloud Stack has released more than 40 solutions for national AI clouds, national government clouds, financial clouds, and other industry-specific use cases.

The preferred choice for an intelligent upgrade of Asia-Pacific enterprises

Huawei Cloud Stack serves more than 5,200 customers around the world, including over 800 government cloud customers, over 300 financial institutions, and 70 Fortune 500 companies. In Asia Pacific, Huawei Cloud Stack has been used to deploy over 200 clouds for customers in sectors like government, finance, operator, and large enterprises. Huawei Cloud Stack has become the top choice for Asia-Pacific customers to promote intelligent upgrades:

• For government: Huawei Cloud helped National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT) in Thailand deploy a national government cloud using Huawei Cloud Stack. Thanks to on-premises, full-stack hybrid cloud capabilities provided by Huawei Cloud Stack, the government cloud has taken public services of multiple government organizations to the next level. Huawei Cloud also leveraged Huawei Cloud Stack to help Siriraj Hospital establish a unified IT infrastructure. The robust infrastructure helped this largest public hospital in Thailand quickly scale and optimize its IT services.

• For finance: Huawei Cloud Stack helped Bank Neo Commerce (BNC) in Indonesia deploy an on-premises cloud platform. The platform automates the deployment of diverse services and enables fast service rollout. It also provides efficient centralized maintenance, which helps experts in BNC stay more focused on innovation.

• For operators: Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s flagship telecommunications service provider, leveraged Huawei Cloud Stack to run mission-critical applications for customers in government, finance, large enterprises, and to manage their internal applications. Huawei Cloud Stack also empowered Dialog’s customers in Sri Lanka to access services from the Huawei public cloud. CTM Cloud, the sole local cloud service provider in Macao, China, used Huawei Cloud Stack to build an on-premises B2B cloud that ensures data is not transferred outside Macao. Huawei Cloud Stack has provided companies in Macao with a powerful, secure, and stable cloud infrastructure and cutting-edge technologies like AI and big data, which has helped Digital Macao gain momentum. Dhiraagu, a leading Maldivian telecommunications company, harnessed Huawei Cloud Stack to centrally manage both on-premises clouds and public clouds. Huawei Cloud Stack has also provided AI, big data, and other innovative cloud services for Dhiraagu, which has helped them slash their total cost of ownership (TCO).

• For large enterprises: OREL IT, the largest IT employer in Sri Lanka, has increased its B2B revenue using the resale, value-added, and advanced cloud services from Huawei Cloud. With Huawei Cloud, OREL IT is now able to easily manage its AI application users, create unified applications, and provide video services for its end users. All these benefits help them unlock new opportunities. Huawei Cloud Stack also helped Detik Network in Indonesia Excellerate efficiency without compromising their live streaming quality.

A superb professional service system

Huawei Cloud Stack has developed over 100 professional services based on years of experience in digital transformation, both internally and for government and enterprise customers. These professional services support the entire cloud journey from consultation, planning, construction, and migration to cloud service support, operations, maintenance, customer development, and industry-tailored support. Huawei Cloud Stack has also deployed five international O&M centers that can help customers use the cloud more reliably and securely. Moreover, backed by such superb professional service system, Huawei Cloud Stack’s over 10 local service teams in Asia Pacific are always there to help Asia-Pacific customers quickly deploy, smoothly move to, dive deep into, and efficiently manage the cloud.

Looking ahead, Huawei Cloud will continue to spur innovation, expand industry expertise, and develop more customer-centric services to help more Asia-Pacific customers move to, use, and manage the cloud better. Huawei Cloud will join hands with more Asia-Pacific partners and customers to drive the constant development of the digital economy in the Asia Pacific.

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Huawei, UNESCO, and Thailand's Ministry of Education are launching the Green Education Initiative to educate and empower youth and communities on climate action, with a focus on green schools, skills, and communities.

Huawei and UNESCO and Ministry of Education announced their strategic partnership on the Green Education Initiative, which is designed to educate young people and communities nationwide on the importance of climate action and empower them to take action.

The initiative covers three areas:

• Green Schools: promoting water security, clean energy, biomass production, and waste management in educational institutions.
• Green Skills: developing skills among students, educators, and communities to drive environmental responsibility and sustainability.
• Green Communities: engaging with local communities to create awareness and promote green practices beyond schools.

Huawei, under its TECH4ALL initiative, and UNESCO plan to develop green programs and solutions covering these three areas in partnership with Thailand’s Ministry of Education. Projects include digital power technologies for schools, green energy training for students, and a digital bus to provide training in digital literacy and climate action with a focus on rural and remote areas throughout Thailand.

UNESCO defines ‘greening’ as pursuing the knowledge and practices that are more ecologically responsible and promote the sustainable use of natural resources for current and future generations.

“The SDGs are at a midpoint, and there is still much work that needs to be done. No one can do this alone, including the United Nations,” said Kirimoke Drollett, Chief of Administration of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, at the launch event in Nakhon Nayok Province. “It is essential that we take urgent and accelerated action to put the SDGs back on track, and our partnership will speed up the efforts for climate action through green education. UNESCO is proud to support Thailand in greening and securing a bright future for all.”

Thailand has announced a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality roadmap by 2050. To achieve these goals, solar power must be boosted as a crucial energy source. In Thailand, solar power capacity currently stands at 2,633 megawatts and is expected to reach 14,864 megawatts by 2037.

The Green Education Initiative signifies a shared commitment to empower young people, communities, and other stakeholders to take an active role in climate action. The Department of Learning Encouragement (DOLE) under Thailand’s Ministry of Education will support lifelong learning for people of all ages and ensure the initiative reaches communities that need it the most.

Mr Chaipat Panwatanasakul (Ed.D.), Expert on Curriculum Development and Division Director of Strategy and Planning, DOLE, said: “I am delighted and proud to work together with UNESCO and Huawei Thailand to drive forward Green Education and Schools in Thailand. This initiative will help enable more digital inclusiveness for youth and the public in every corner of Thailand by utilising the digital bus to enhance education on technology, Excellerate our quality of life, and tackle global warming. In addition to enabling more digital skills, Huawei and UNESCO also want to emphasise the issue of global warming by including knowledge sharing on water security, clean energy, biomass production, and waste management. I would like to thank Huawei again for providing this initial opportunity to the Department of Learning Encouragement, Ban Na, Nakhon Nayok."

Huawei will leverage its technological expertise in digital and green solutions to support the initiative.

“In Thailand’s journey toward a digitally connected and low-carbon future, Huawei is committed to enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital Thailand in the past 24 years. Huawei has already installed a total of more than 5 GW inverters in Thailand’s households and industries. In this green education project, Huawei will devote our technological innovation in digital power solutions and capacity-building experience in green energy training. With UNESCO, the Ministry of Education, and partners, we aim to support Thailand’s Carbon Neutrality roadmap and cultivation of local green energy engineers,” said Benjamin Liu, Director of Human Resources Department, Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

More than 150 people, including UNESCO Bangkok, local officials, partners, teachers and students, and community members, attended the launch event in Thailand.