HUAWEI CLOUD Summit Middle East and Africa 2022- Inspiring Innovation with Everything as a Service

Mar 29, 2022

The HUAWEI CLOUD Summit Middle East and Africa was held in Dubai on March 28 and 29. Themed Inspire Innovation with Everything as a Service, the event brought together over 1,000 government leaders, customer representatives, and industry experts from the Middle East and Africa, exploring how cloud computing can serve and advance industries such as public services, finance, carriers, media, e-commerce, and gaming.

Zhang Ping'an, Senior VP of Huawei and CEO of Huawei Cloud Computing, delivered a keynote speech, sharing Huawei Cloud's vision of building the cloud foundation for an intelligent world with ubiquitous cloud and pervasive intelligence, and detailing how Huawei Cloud is providing Everything as a Service.

According to Zhang Ping'an, more than 170 countries have released their national digital strategies. In a post-pandemic world, economic recovery and low-carbon development are dual drivers of digitalization for global organizations. Currently in the Middle East and Africa, there is active exploration into sectors such as government, carriers, finance, education, and Internet.

Huawei Cloud believes that the key to successful digitalization is an all-digital, all-cloud approach with Everything as a Service, which is underpinned by three pillars:

• Infrastructure as a Service: Based on Huawei Cloud's data centers and acceleration networks, Huawei Cloud provides a global network with consistent experience and rapid accessibility. Regarding local deployment, Huawei Cloud has launched an availability zone (AZ) in South Africa and a Region in Abu Dhabi. To date, Huawei Cloud and partners operate 65 AZs in 27 geographic regions, providing comprehensive local services for customers in more than 170 countries and regions.
• Technology as a Service: Innovation is at the heart of enterprise competitiveness. Huawei Cloud continues to open up the achievements of Huawei's over 100,000 engineers and an annual investment of tens of billions of dollars in research and development, and provides them as cloud services for customers, partners, and developers in various industries. Huawei Cloud builds four pipelines to help developers around the world fully automate their applications. These four pipelines are DevCloud for software development, MetaStudio for digital content development, ModelArts for the AI development, and data governance for managed development.
• Expertise as a Service: Huawei Cloud launched MacroVerse aPaaS to incorporate the collective experience of Huawei and partners into replicable interfaces and tools to tailor innovation to every scenario. Currently, MacroVerse aPaaS has over 50 cloud services, 128 Kits, and 20,000 APIs, distilling expertise into shared excellence for faster digitalization around the world.

Last year, Huawei Cloud proposed Cloud-Cloud Collaboration between Huawei Cloud and Huawei Mobile Cloud. Deep synergy of the cloud infrastructure and the mobile application ecosystem unifies both services and experience for customers and partners. Looking forward, Huawei Cloud will continue to strengthen support for start-ups and OTT enterprises in the Middle East and Africa. Huawei Cloud's strength in cloud-cloud collaboration is fully leveraged in growing enterprises through continuous innovation, localized services, and a thriving ecosystem.

According to Zhang Ping'an, it's been more than 20 years since Huawei put down roots in the Middle East and Africa, 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 USD15 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.

In addition, Huawei Cloud Africa works with local universities to teach students about the cloud. Huawei also organizes regular training, developer competitions, and certifications to help local talent quickly grow into experts.

"In the next decade, Huawei Cloud will strengthen public cloud infrastructure construction in the Middle East and Africa," said Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East and Africa Area. "At the same time, I strongly believe that each country shall build its own cloud to address the uncertainties and challenges.” Huawei will continue adhering to technology neutrality and working as a reliable technology partner to help countries build a solid foundation for digital future. This includes strengthening cloud infrastructure, talent cultivation, and ecosystem building.

Steven Yi at HUAWEI CLOUD Summit Middle East and Africa 2022

"Cloud is the future of ICT and the foundation of digital transformation. Cloud transformation has become a top priority for industries," said Frank Dai, President of Huawei Cloud Middle East. "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 global partners to deepen digitalization and provide Everything as a Service."

Frank Dai at HUAWEI CLOUD Middle East and Africa Summit 2022

At the Summit, Sara, Huawei Cloud's first digital employee, made her debut in the MEA through holographic projection. The Summit also Huawei Cloud's Spark Program 2022. The Program will support local start-ups and partners in building their cloud capabilities.

"Today, Huawei Cloud is more confident than ever to grow with partners and customers in the Middle East and Africa to accelerate digital transformation across industries," said Zhang Ping'an. "Huawei Cloud hopes to work with customers and partners to deepen digitalization in their industry. Let's build the cloud foundation for an intelligent world, a world with cloud and intelligence everywhere."