GITEX Global: Huawei Cloud Expanding Middle East Presence

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Roy Luo, Head of Middle East and Central Asia Huawei Cloud Solution and Marketing Business
Huawei’s Roy Luo on how its cloud computing is expanding across the Middle East and Central Asia region

Huawei Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Chinese technology company Huawei, is deepening its investment in the Middle East and Central Asia after 26 years of operations in the region, with a focus on artificial intelligence and local ecosystem development.

The company has established four cloud regions in the Middle East and Africa, including a tier-three data centre in Saudi Arabia that provides 20-millisecond latency within the country and 100-millisecond coverage across the wider region, enabling faster processing of cloud-based applications and services.

In an exclusive interview at GITEX Global 2024 in Dubai, Roy Luo, Head of Middle East and Central Asia Huawei Cloud Solution and Marketing Business, outlined how the cloud computing arm of Chinese technology company Huawei is expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities and local ecosystem development, with its regional expansion underpinned by the company's ‘Everything as a Service’ strategy. "We want to utilise our investment in the region to put the best security, reliability and advanced cloud infrastructure in place," he said.

Government sector leads digital transformation

The public sector is driving cloud adoption in the region, with government initiatives such as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 spurring digital transformation across industries. “They like to set up the vision,” says Roy. “They also have plans to build future cities, future government services, even future power suppliers and also the oil and gas industry as well.”

In Uzbekistan, Huawei has implemented an e-government system serving 37 million citizens with more than 400 public services running on cloud infrastructure. The company’s cloud offering includes ultra-low latency solutions for live e-commerce and support services, with end-to-end delays of less than 500 milliseconds.

The company’s data governance framework provides tools for data collection, ingestion, quality assurance, exchange, sharing and security. “Data will be the foundation of AI,” Luo explains. “We provide end-to-end solutions to help industry customers govern the data in their organisation.”

AI development and ecosystem growth

Huawei Cloud’s artificial intelligence strategy centres on five foundation models, which are large-scale AI systems trained on vast datasets. These include natural language processing for text analysis, computer vision for image recognition and multimodal capabilities for AI-generated content. The company also offers models for research centres and scientific applications such as city planning and weather forecasting.

The company’s Beta Studio platform combines its Pangu AI technology with natural language models for digital content production. “You can use your phone to take a video or picture, upload it and create a digital avatar. You can then enable this avatar to speak in English, Arabic, Spanish – most of the popular languages in the world,” Luo says.

The ecosystem strategy involves two programmes: Go Cloud, which supports independent software vendors in cloud innovation, and Grow Cloud, which focuses on developing local cloud companies. “We must combine with all the advanced system integrators, service solution and software providers in the market to create industry-based solutions for our customers,” Luo explains.

Over the past three years, Huawei aimed to develop 400 partners in solutions and sales cooperation across the Middle East and Central Asia. Its GaussDB database management system provides data storage capabilities for these partnerships.

In its largest talent development initiative to date, the company plans to train 500,000 developers in the region over the next five years while collaborating with more than 1,000 solution providers. The focus will be on sectors including government, finance, media, e-commerce, and retail.

“Going into the intelligence era is not up for debate anymore,” says Luo. “With our 'Everything as a Service' strategy and innovation, we will bring and introduce the most advanced cloud services into this region, especially in two domains – how we help the region govern their data effectively and utilise it for artificial intelligence innovation.”

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