華為渴望成為全球云巨擘

China’s Huawei has announced ambitions to become a top five global cloud computing company after linking up with Microsoft.

中國的華為(Huawei)在與微軟(Microsoft)聯(lián)手后宣布了立志成為全球前五大云計算公司的雄心。

The move pits the employee-owned company against global giants Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM as well as Microsoft itself. In China, it will be up against Alibaba and Tencent.

此舉使這家由員工擁有的公司與全球巨頭亞馬遜云服務(AWS)、谷歌(Google)、IBM以及微軟本身直接競爭。在中國，它將與阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)展開較量。

Huawei is using a series of partnerships, which it likened to airline alliances, to attract customers in parts of the world where it would struggle to win big contracts.

華為正利用一系列合作伙伴關系——該公司將其比作航空公司聯(lián)盟——在世界某些地區(qū)吸引客戶，而華為本身在這類地區(qū)本來難以爭取到大合同。

That includes Europe, where it is less well known, and the US where its perceived links to the Chinese government have stymied its efforts to sell network equipment.

這包括歐洲和美國，在歐洲華為的知名度較低，而在美國，華為被視為與中國政府有聯(lián)系，這種印象阻礙了該公司在美銷售網(wǎng)絡設備的努力。

In its partnership with Microsoft, the US technology group will release apps on Huawei Cloud.

在華為與微軟的合作中，身為美國科技集團的微軟將在華為云(Huawei Cloud)上發(fā)布應用。

“It’s sure that if we are going to develop this business in the US we will co-operate with partners,” said Guo Ping, rotating chief executive and chairman of Huawei. “We will provide the technology and we will not touch applications and user data.”

“如果我們要在美國開展這項業(yè)務，我們肯定將與合作伙伴合作，”華為輪值CEO兼副董事長郭平表示。“我們將提供技術，同時我們不會碰應用程序和用戶數(shù)據(jù)。”

Matthew Ball, principal analyst at Canalys, said the target was “certainly ambitious” given the clout of AWS, Microsoft and Google as well as Alibaba and Tencent in China.

市場研究機構(gòu)Canalys首席分析師馬修•波爾(Matthew Ball)表示，鑒于AWS、微軟和谷歌還有中國的阿里巴巴和騰訊的實力，華為的目標“肯定是雄心勃勃的”。

These participants, he said, had the advantage of big digital businesses — be it shopping or search — driving their cloud business.

他表示，這些參與者都有一個優(yōu)勢，即龐大的數(shù)字業(yè)務(無論是購物還是搜索)驅(qū)動著他們的云計算業(yè)務。

“There’s a lot to catch up with, but I think there’s an opportunity for them to do so,” he said, in part by relying on their telecoms customers.

“有很多地方需要追趕，但我認為他們有機會做到這一點，”他表示。他估計，華為將在一定程度上依靠其電信客戶。

Undeterred by the competition, Mr Gao is counting on the rapidly growing market to create opportunities.

郭平不懼競爭，他指望快速增長的市場創(chuàng)造機會。

Gartner, the data consultancy, forecasts the global public cloud market will grow 18 per cent this year to $246.8bn, with infrastructure as a service racking up the biggest increase at 36.8 per cent to $34.6bn. Infrastructure as a service is the backbone of Huawei’s business.

數(shù)據(jù)咨詢公司高德納(Gartner)預測，全球公有云服務市場今年將增長18%，至2468億美元，其中“基礎設施即服務”(IaaS)這一塊將出現(xiàn)最大增幅，增長36.8%，至346億美元。基礎設施即服務堪稱華為的主干業(yè)務。

The group announced its cloud strategy in 2015, saying that its public cloud would not touch clients’ applications or data. Huawei previously lined up cloud partnerships with European telecoms groups, including Deutsche Telekom.

該集團于2015年宣布其云計算戰(zhàn)略，稱其公有云不會碰客戶的應用程序或數(shù)據(jù)。華為以前曾與德國電信(Deutsche Telekom)等歐洲電信集團在云領域建立合作關系。

Huawei’s ambitions expose it to a sector that is losing money in China as companies rush to sign up customers.

華為的雄心使其涉足了一個在中國虧損的行業(yè)，這種虧損是因為企業(yè)急于搶客戶。

Alibaba, the dominant domestic player, has continuously slashed prices — much as AWS did when it began — and while it narrowed losses in the latest quarter it still lost $4 for every $100 in sales at the level of adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation.

在中國占主導地位的阿里巴巴不斷降價——就像AWS在開始時一樣——而盡管其在最近一個季度收窄了虧損，按息稅攤銷前調(diào)整后盈利計算，該公司云業(yè)務仍然是每銷售100美元就要虧損4美元。

“With cloud, what is important is the scale of the business and I believe we will have a good future,” said Mr Gao, adding that when it came to profitability, “I’m also patient”.

“對于云計算，重要的是業(yè)務規(guī)模，我相信我們將有一個美好的未來，”郭平表示。他補充說，在盈利能力上，“我也很耐心”。

Huawei is already suffering from wafer-thin margins in its smartphone business, where it has spent heavily on marketing to win share from Apple and Samsung in the Chinese market, a strategy that has proved successful in terms of sales.

在智能手機業(yè)務上，華為已經(jīng)承受著利潤率微薄之痛;該公司在智能手機的營銷上大舉支出，力求在中國市場從蘋果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)那里奪取市場份額。至少就銷售而言，這一戰(zhàn)略被證明是成功的。

An increasing number of companies are piling into data storage in China, propelled in part by the cyber security law that came into effect on June 1 and which requires data on Chinese citizens and other sensitive information to be stored onshore.

目前，越來越多的企業(yè)扎堆擠入中國的數(shù)據(jù)存儲業(yè)務，這在一定程度上是受到6月1日生效的網(wǎng)絡安全法的推動，該法要求把有關中國公民的數(shù)據(jù)和其他敏感信息存儲在境內(nèi)。

This has led to a flurry of activity building storage capacity as it simultaneously rattled multinationals and others worried about the security of data held in China.

這帶來了一波建設存儲能力的活動，與此同時，跨國公司和其他一些人擔心在中國存儲的數(shù)據(jù)的安全性。

Huawei is seeking to allay any concerns on its own servers by touting its security and stressing it will not seek to monetise any data on its platforms.

華為正尋求通過宣傳自己的安全保障措施來緩解外界對其服務器的擔憂，并強調(diào)該公司不會尋求將其平臺上的任何數(shù)據(jù)變現(xiàn)。

However, Mr Gao noted the move into a new area would not be without challenges.

不過，郭平指出，進入新的領域不會是沒有挑戰(zhàn)的。

“The cloud business is an operational business,” he said. “It’s different from selling equipment and services [Huawei’s historical businesses]. It may challenge our processes and enterprise culture.”

“云計算業(yè)務是一種運營型業(yè)務，”他表示。“它與銷售設備和服務(華為的傳統(tǒng)業(yè)務)不同。它可能會挑戰(zhàn)我們的流程和企業(yè)文化。”

But, he added: “If Huawei didn’t enter into the cloud business our revenues may decrease. So this is a business we must enter into.”

但他補充說：“如果華為當初沒有進入云業(yè)務，我們的營收可能會下降。所以這是我們必須進入的業(yè)務領域。”