How Has Huawei Been Able to Overcome the Uncertainty of the Past Year?

Qiu Heng

President of Global Marketing, Huawei Enterprise Business Group

Despite the many external uncertainties of recent times, Huawei has never deviated from our vision and mission. We are committed to bringing digital to every organization.

So how have we survived the pandemic and the entity list event over these last 12 months? The simple answer is the diversified supply strategy. After more than ten years of effort, Huawei has established an end-to-end Business Continuity Management system that covers R&D, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and many other areas. This diversified supplier strategy, also known as Plan B, is an important BCM measure that minimizes risks — from supply interruption to out-of-service periods — caused by emergencies. In addition, it protects us from the technological lock-in of proprietary protocols, and enables effective lifecycle management of old technologies.

Putting all your eggs in one basket, as the old saying goes, means that you are leaving your chances to luck. However, with diversification, we can maintain business stability no matter how the external environment changes. This allows us to achieve technological dividends and help customers accomplish digital transformation.

Take an optical module as an example. During the pandemic, four major suppliers ceased production, and the entire market suffered a 60% reduction in capacity. Yet, Huawei completed the delivery of existing equipment within three days, performed new supplier qualification within one day, and achieved full supply delivery within two months. Indeed, benefiting from our own BCM system, Huawei has been able to launch solutions tailored for different phases of the pandemic, actively contributing to pandemic response strategies with the help of technology.

Huawei uses its comprehensive BCM system to reduce the impact of emergencies and ensure business continuity, not only for us, but for our partners and customers, too. From this foundation, Huawei will help customers achieve business success by leading industrial digital transformation, promoting transformation in campus and data center scenarios, and developing industry-leading, star products.

On campuses and in data centers, Huawei aims to become a reformer, to bring about the transformation of both. Simply put: existing campuses and data centers are not perfect; we can make them better.

We will use 5G-powered Wi-Fi 6, Campus OptiX — which integrates IP and optical network advantages — and the Horizon digital platform to redefine campuses. We will build fully wireless, optical, intelligent Huawei smart campuses that provide converged management.

We have customized solutions for the access, network, and application layers of the campus network. At the access layer, Huawei offers a unique, 5G-powered Wi-Fi 6 solution. Compared with the industry's next-best offering, our Wi-Fi solution improves coverage radius by 20%. In addition, with Dynamic Turbo, we have cut latency in half and achieved a high throughput of 10.75 Gbit/s. At the network layer, only Huawei can integrate IP and optical networks, with a unified management system seamlessly managing both IP and optical devices. Such an achievement is simply impossible for vendors who only have either an optical network or an IP network.

In data centers, the keyword is now "redefine." So how do we "redefine" data centers?

One answer to that question is network evolution. A traditional data center might have three independent networks to connect servers, storage devices, and HPC. But Huawei's DCI solution "redefines" the tradition, merging all three, along with all of their functionality, into a single, unified network.

Another answer involves battery changes. In the past, data centers have used lead-acid batteries, a relatively clumsy technology that is not applicable nor available for some buildings. Today, lithium-ion batteries point the way forward. Here, a key Huawei advantage is a battery management system that supports the smooth evolution of existing systems. This means that customers can use both their legacy systems and a powerful new system at the same time, effectively protecting investments already made. Huawei is currently the only vendor in the industry who can offer this.

And yet another answer to our question involves "redefining" O&M. Data center management is complex. In a large data center, O&M investment is inevitably huge. Yet Huawei provides intelligent "1-3-5" O&M services: this means, automatically detecting a fault in one minute, locating the fault in three minutes, and rectifying it in five. Such efficient fault processing can only be achieved with our advanced AI system, which solves 85% of typical data center faults, ushering intelligent O&M in the data center into a new age.

With the recognition of our global customers, and the support of our partners, Huawei Enterprise BG achieved CNY8.9 billion sales revenue in 2019, with 86% of that figure contributed by our partners. Today, 228 Fortune Global 500 companies — including 58 of the top 100 — have chosen Huawei as their partner in digital transformation.

In unprecedented times, to better cope with the pandemic crisis, industry players are implementing ICT at accelerating speed. Huawei will continue to offer its support, building the core of the digital world to promote the development of industrial digital transformation through leading ICT.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, products, and technologies of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. If you need to learn more about the products and technologies of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., please visit our website at e.huawei.com or contact us.