“Cloud is the future of ICT and the foundation of digital transformation in the Middle East,” said Huawei Cloud Middle East president Frank Dai.
Dai’s remarks came during the recently concluded HUAWEI CLOUD Summit Middle East and Africa 2022 in Dubai, UAE.
The event, which was held under the theme, “Inspire Innovation with Everything as a Service”, brought together over 1000 government leaders, customer representatives, and industry experts from MEA to explore how cloud computing can serve and advance industries such as public services, finance, carriers, media, e-commerce, and gaming.
“Cloud transformation has become a top priority for industries. To build the cloud infrastructure, there are four essential elements: technology, economic impact, talent ecosystem, and digital sovereignty. To this end, Huawei Cloud is working with partners to deepen digitalisation and provide ‘Everything as a Service’,” said Dai.
He further highlighted that an “all-digital, all-cloud approach is key to successful digitalisation”. He then revealed that this approach is what drives Huawei’s Everything as a Service tenet, which is underpinned by three pillars – Infrastructure as a Service, Technology as a Service and Expertise as a Service.
“This can accelerate digital transformation while also minimising the carbon footprint from their IT infrastructure, speed up the development of new apps and business processes, and enable organisations to innovate faster,” said Dai.
Huawei has been present in the Middle East and Africa for over two decades and has been providing open, flexible, and secure ICT infrastructure to bridge the digital divide for more than 3500 enterprises and over 1.2 billion people in these two geographies.
In 2021, Huawei Cloud Middle East announced an investment of $15 million to accelerate the development of local enterprises and ecosystems. This money will cultivate more than 1000 consulting partners, 500 technical partners, 3000 certified experts, and several hundred SMEs.
Last year, Huawei Cloud launched the Abu Dhabi Region, and this year the company is building a cloud region in Saudi Arabia, with plans to expand to other markets. Hosting the Huawei Cloud region in the Middle East will boost local businesses and governments’ ability to access more robust and secure cloud services from Huawei and create new social and economic value in the region.
When asked how Huawei is evolving its cloud business to support the continuously growing digital demands in the region, Dai told ITP.net that the company is committed to fostering innovation and ensuring collaborations with enterprises in the Middle East with its Everything as a service approach.
“Moreover, Huawei Cloud is committed to growing with partners throughout the Middle East. Last year, for example, we announced investing $15 million in the Middle East Huawei Cloud Oasis programme to assist 3,000 experts, support over 1,500 consulting and technical partners, and empower more than 100 SMEs to develop their cloud capabilities,” he said.
Dai also noted how initiatives such as the Huawei Cloud Spark programme are providing startups in the region with access to financial and technical support, mentoring, and go-to-market encouragement to help them focus on business development without financial and marketing difficulty worries.
“To further demonstrate our commitment to the Middle East, at the recent LEAP conference in Riyadh, we also announced plans to open a cloud region in Saudi Arabia, reflecting the importance of the Kingdom to its global business, and the importance of cloud in the region,” he said.
Data security and privacy protection have also been crucial focuses for Huawei. Over the recent years, the company has invested around $132.5 billion in terms of R&D with five percent of that investment going directly to cybersecurity.
Furthermore, the Huawei president also highlighted that there is currently a strong demand in the market for innovations around cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and IoT among others.
“Digitalisation creates additional opportunities for our economic growth as well. By 2025, for example, Huawei predicts that 97 percent of all large companies will use AI, and approximately 60 percent of global carrier revenue will be derived from industry customers,” said Dai.
He emphasised that Huawei Cloud has always been committed to making AI application development, delivery, and deployment easier and more efficient.
“Huawei Cloud with ModelArts as AI development platform that enables developers and data scientists of any skill level to rapidly build, train, and deploy models anywhere, from the cloud to the edge. It can also accelerate end-to-end AI development and foster AI innovation with key capabilities, including data preprocessing, semi-automated data labeling, distributed training, and automated model building
“Huawei Cloud released Pangu pre-trained models, the OptVerse AI Solver, and other foundational technologies in 2021. From diving into these industries and building the intelligent hub they need, we have amassed considerable know-how related to the application of AI in these industries. We’ve also announced the Intelligent Twins where customers and partners of Huawei can build their own intelligent solutions to enable intelligent transformation across industries for all-scenario intelligence,” explained Dai.
During the summit, Sara, Huawei Cloud’s first digital employee, made her debut in the region through holographic projection. Throughout the event, experts also delved into how organisations can better leverage cloud and AI technologies across various functions.
