Huawei Cloud Commits to Propel South Africa's Digital Transformation, as a Top Three Cloud Vendor
Oct 25, 2024
[Johannesburg, South Africa, 24 October 2024 ] Huawei Cloud, a top three cloud vendor in South Africa, today pledged to accelerate the digital transformation for local industries over the next five years to support the implementation of South Africa's National Digital and Cloud Policy, thus driving the growth of the country's digital economy.
The inaugural Huawei Cloud Summit brought together public and private sector stakeholders with Huawei executives and Huawei Cloud ecosystem partners to align on strategies for better cloud infrastructure and digitisation in South Africa.
Huawei Cloud has been in South Africa since 2019 and in this time its public cloud business has grown more than 16 times, making it one of the top three cloud providers in the local market.
Jacqueline Shi, President of Huawei Cloud Global Marketing and Sales Service
Among the headline speakers at the summit was Jacqueline Shi, President of Huawei Cloud Global Marketing and Sales Service. She expressed how "Huawei Cloud is committed to building a digital South Africa with social equality, cultural diversity, and economic prosperity. We strive to build a new intelligent foundation through continuous technological innovation."
"Huawei Cloud hopes to build a local platform that empowers South Africa and its enterprises. Only when the local ecosystem is sustainable and healthy can the digitisation dream be fully realised," said Shi.
Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani, Director-General of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies
Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani, Director-General of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, outlined how the state aims to create an enabling environment for all sectors to grow the digital economy.
"Our priority remains driving the digital transformation process. This will enable inclusive growth and job creation. We also want to reduce poverty and address essential services like healthcare, education, security and e-government," said Jordan-Dyani.
The Director-General spoke about the crucial role that public cloud infrastructure will play in unlocking growth opportunities and added that data sovereignty is a priority for the government. "Partners like Huawei have assisted us in making sure we have stored our data locally," she added.
A Cloud-First Digital Economy Powered by AI
"With no cloud, there can be no digitisation," said Will Meng, CEO of Huawei South Africa. He underscored the company's commitment to building localised capabilities and services in South Africa.
Will Meng, CEO of Huawei South Africa
Meng spoke to Huawei's 25-year history in South Africa and how it introduced the first large-scale data centres to deliver massive computing power and storage capacity to the country in 2019. "Now we want to share our global expertise in leveraging cloud and AI models with local partners."
Huawei has implemented cutting-edge cloud solutions around the world, and it is now eager to bring more of these innovations to South Africa and go above and beyond the pioneering National Cloud service it has already built.
Its collaboration with countries like Singapore and Saudi Arabia has allowed it to create a dual base of cloud and AI expertise, helping partners fully realise the value of their data and achieve rapid digital economic growth. Huawei Cloud is set to bring these advanced global practices to South Africa and empower sustainable digital economy.
Huawei Cloud has invested in data centres over the past five years and deployed three Availability Zones (AZs) while advocating for each country to have its own data sovereignty.
Mark Chen, President of Global Solutions and Sales at Huawei Cloud
Mark Chen, President of Global Solutions and Sales at Huawei Cloud, announced that Huawei Cloud Stack 8.5 would now be available in South Africa. This new offering will take a hybrid cloud approach boasting more powerful cloud infrastructure, advanced cloud services, and better industry-specific solutions.
Flexus series cloud services, and the industry-specific Pangu Models will also be introduced to the market to tackle complex issues for South African enterprises.
Chen then outlined the successes that the company has achieved in South Africa. "We deliver a 15 ms low latency across South Africa and 53 ms across Sub-Saharan Africa."
Superior Know-how in Creating Thriving Digital Industries
Leading local and regional enterprises choose Huawei Cloud as their digital transformation partner. From telecommunications to transportation and e-commerce, Huawei Cloud’s range of flexible and reliable services exceed industry needs.
Numerous cloud partners at the summit attested to the impact these solutions have had on their businesses.
The CIO of Transnet, Pandelani Munyai, echoed Meng's sentiment that without cloud capabilities, AI systems won't be available. His speech outlined the progress they have made in integrating cloud services in their operations. "We are trying to digitise the ports," he said, adding that, "The partnership we have with Huawei is helping us transform our infrastructure."
Over the past six years, Huawei Cloud has served more than 1,000 customers and 450 partners in South Africa, not only as a cloud infrastructure vendor, but as an ecosystem builder within the modern digital economy.
The country's top bank has partnered with Huawei to accelerate financial data compliance and cloud transformation continent-wide. Sunil Nagar, Head of Operations at Standard Bank Insurance and Asset Management said, "There is a close partnership between Standard Bank Group and Huawei, where we see huge value." He spoke about how data was the bridge between their technology and their business teams and that a unified cloud platform was essential to their operations.
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa collaborates with Huawei in building an intelligent railway system. These upgrades include moving from virtualisation to a hybrid cloud platform, which currently reduces thefts and increases operational efficiency by 80%.
A Prosperous, Digital Ecosystem for South Africa
Huawei Cloud is committed to creating a flourishing local ecosystem by collaborating with system integrators and independent software vendors. Huawei has launched several digital talent cultivation projects like Leap, ICT Academy, and Seeds for the Future, benefiting over 16,000 people.
At this summit, a position paper titled, Cloud Computing: Striding Towards the Intelligent World, was released. This resource is packed with digital transformation case studies from eight industries including government, healthcare, education, finance, manufacturing, and the Internet.
Huawei Cloud calls for stakeholders to work together and support businesses and industries in South Africa as they go cloud and digital.
In closing the day's proceedings, Steven Chen, CEO of Huawei Cloud South Africa, spoke to Huawei Cloud's efforts to build relationships with local stakeholders and expand its impact in South Africa. "We love our partners, and our growth and success would not be possible without them. With our ecosystems and solutions, we can make a digital South Africa better together."