Feras Alsarraj, CTO & Business Development, Enterprise Business Group, Huawei, shares with Telecom Review some of the innovative Huawei solutions that are being exhibited at the LEAP 2022 technology innovation conference in Riyadh
HUAWEI CLOUD
Showcasing Huawei’s capability when it comes to the cloud, Alsarraj said: “We have more than 220 ready services spread across 17 categories to deliver to the customer. These will save time, reduce costs, and provide other benefits to enterprises in all sectors. There are many players in the cloud business, but Huawei is head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to using artificial intelligence, as we are developing complex features which are cost-intensive and require a lot of computing power.”
He also said that machine learning and artificial intelligence require a lot of computing power processing, and that it is very difficult for a single organization to achieve such capabilities as Huawei has.
Another point he highlighted was Huawei’s plans to open a HUAWEI CLOUD region in Saudi Arabia. “This is a work in progress and there is a lot of discussion going on now with the authorities and the right partners. This new region will be online hopefully this year, and will create new social and economic value in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East in line with national digital development strategies,” he added.
Huawei Digital Power
Commenting on digital power, Alsarraj said that it was becoming an important business for various sectors. “Huawei has formed this as an independent division. It is called digital power because it is going to change how we consume power through the integration of digital technologies. As you know, one of the main objectives for every nation is to reduce its carbon emission. Saudi Arabia has announced their plans for 2060 to be net zero. To meet that objective, plans must be made at the earliest. So these kinds of technologies that Huawei is integrating and making available is something that will have enormous socio-economic benefits. We have a leadership position in the market to deliver on this,” he said.
“As a testament of our efforts in carbon neutrality and green energy, Huawei is already delivering complete solutions that help customers to build green data centers, where the power consumption is reduced to the minimal and a maximum percentage of the power generated is utilized through various innovative means.”
Huawei Intelligent Operation Center (IOC)
Elaborating on Huawei’s flagship Intelligent Operations Center (IOC), Alsarraj said that the center enables a city manager to monitor the entire aspect of a city in real-time to control, take actions, and monitor progress.
“The way we deliver that is we build a digital twin for the actual city. That digital twin will aggregate a lot of inputs and signals from all kinds of devices such as cameras, sensors, networks, IoT devices, and RFID. All these technologies are aggregated, and they are presented on one page so you can see it. In case of any disaster or accident, they can be spotted immediately. We have tried this in Shenzhen in China, for example, and some have been implemented in the Saudi smart city of Yanbu already,” he added.
Alsarraj said that the benefit of building a smart city (or ‘cognitive city’) was to enhance the level of service for the citizens and also help to reduce the operation costs. “It helps to respond to problems and disasters much faster, and improves the quality of life of a city. In addition, it creates a very attractive living environment that will encourage investment, job creation, and impact a wide spectrum of activities,” he concluded.
Huawei data storage
Stressing on the need for a well-functioning and secure data storage system, Alsarraj added: “As you know, today we are living in the age of data. Data is becoming the asset and value for every economy. A very important part of that chain is where we keep this data – in technical terms, the storage system for data. Huawei has some of the best platforms for storing data in the world, approved by third-party and based on international standards. We are the leader when it comes to performance and availability on demand.”
Alsarraj noted that Huawei’s data storage systems allow dealing with problems in a better and more effective way than many other alternatives. “Our storage systems are very intelligent with performance enhancement features such as predictive maintenance, smart functionality, and scalability. For the last three years, we believe we are only competing with ourselves when it comes to performance. Meanwhile we are attracting customers every day who are testing and adopting our systems,” he confirmed.
