Huawei Cloud gains traction in Europe despite hyperscaler dominance
Huawei Cloud is experiencing notable growth in Europe, despite stiff competition from hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The Chinese tech giant has steadily expanded its presence outside of China, with its cloud business growing by 50% internationally and now serving over 33,000 customers in Europe.
According to Jacqueline Shi, President of Huawei Cloud’s Global Marketing and Sales Service, the growth can be attributed to the company’s customer-first approach.
“Cloud is a global business, and the hyperscalers have their own advantages,” Shi said during the concluded Cloud Summit in Barcelona. “Huawei Cloud practices ‘everything as a service,’ which means we care a lot about our customers’ needs. We listen to them and customize our solutions to them.”
The company's success was also acknowledged by Gartner, which named Huawei a "Challenger" in its 2024 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems. This recognition highlights Huawei's ability to execute a "completeness of vision," demonstrating both regional availability and the capacity to meet specific regional needs.
The company’s cloud databases, including its AI-native database management platform GaussDB and data warehouse service GaussDB(DWS), are now deployed across 33 regions.
Betting on an AI-driven future
One of the key talking points during the summits was Huawei’s AI strategy. Specifically, Shi talked about the company’s shift from a ‘cloud-native’ to an ‘AI-native’ approach, focusing on two core strategies:
AI for Cloud: Huawei is enhancing all of its services with AI to make them more intelligent and efficient.
Cloud for AI: The company is developing advanced infrastructure, including CloudMatrix and AI Cloud Service, to provide robust computing, data management, modeling tools, and AI training capabilities for customers.
Huawei Cloud is now working towards the development of AI native infrastructure, such as a CloudMatrix and AI Cloud Service. The plan is to leverage these platforms to develop AI native cloud services for databases, knowledge lakes, and software development pipelines.
The company also aims to provide AI models and tools to enable customers and partners to train and run their own AI models.
