ZTE Invests Thousands of Human Capital in Cloud Computing

May 22, 2011
|By Gang Lu

Just a few days after tech news hub-bubbed about ZTE having the most cloud-computing patents in China, ZTE has become the center of tech talk yet again. (Reminder: TechNode’s Powering the China Cloud conference is only 3days away, get you a free ticket here.)

3000 employees. Tens billions RMB. One big aspiration.

Based in Nanjing, ZTE is planning on building the biggest cloud computing system ever. The cloud computing will start by being a huge R&D research facility for its own employees, and after perfection and completion be able to serve mobile carriers, governments, and enterprises all over the world.

Vice president Abin Lu predicted that the global cloud computing market would amount to 10 billion RMB this year, and expect revenue to double in 2012.

Lu also said that cloud computing will be 1/3rd of company revenues. ZTE revenue for 2010 was $10.62 billion.

Strong momentum

ZTE’s cloud computing aspirations are not young. China Mobile, the largest mobile provider in the world, has invested in a huge cost-cutting cloud computing system designed by ZTE.  The system would cut storage and energy costs for data in SMS operations and OSS. ZTE has also been in talks with China Telecom and France Telecom.

ZTE has the biggest number of cloud computing patents in the country. It was also ranked the #2 corporate worldwide.

Entity Number of Cloud Computing Patents
ZTE 107
Huawei 94
Tsinghua University 52
Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 44
Huazhong University of Science and Technology 41
Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics 33
Zhejiang University 30

Source: State Intellectual Property Office

Political support for cloud computing in China

“In western countries, we provide multi-layered solutions, which work well. However, in China, data flow is just too heavy, especially during Chinese New Year. If the mobile infrastructure breaks down, it becomes a political thing. So to be safe, the average efficiency doesn’t even surpass 40%,” said Lu.

Furthermore, cloud computer centers will allow for greater content control and user identification.

Which means one thing: The Chinese government will welcome cloud computing with open arms.

Current solutions

Currently ZTE provides the following cloud-computing related solutions:

  • Mobile carriers:
    • 1. Provide servers to cut down costs
    • 2. “Cloud-ify” operations over regions and departments
    • 3. Provide data processing centers: e.g. with a cloud server, ZTE can use SNS analytical capabilities to filter through trash text messages
  • Separate upper and lower flows of information (SAAS technology) – Downstream information servers with tailored upstream client servers allow for different users under different provincial laws, corporate restrictions, or usage preferences to use the same information differently.
  • Enterprise Solutions
    • Online brokerages
    • Trading
  • Virtual desktops

[Note, the post is written by Michelle Chen from Guanghua School of Management, Peking University.]

Cloud Computing ZTE