Every company will integrate its core business with the cloud, and will be on the look-out for cloud solutions that best suit them, Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating chief executive officer, said during the “Huawei Connect 2016” event in Shanghai last week. “Cloud is changing everything,” he said. “We view change as a process of rebirth. For any business in the Cloud 2.0 era, change brings hope. And through action, we can create the future.”
Enterprises that were born in the cloud led the development of the first cloud era, disrupting industries around the world, he said, adding that he believed the next 10 years would be the era of Cloud 2.0, marking the rise of countless industry clouds.
China’s largest telecommunications company held “Huawei Connect 2016” from August 31 to September 2 under the theme of “Shape the Cloud”, with the aim of exploring cloud-era trends and how different industries can achieve digital transformation by developing cloud technology and contributing to the cloud ecosystem.
This forms part of Huawei’s plan to jump into the information and communications technology industry, apart from the telecoms industry.
Around 20,000 ICT industry leaders and experts from over 120 countries and regions gathered for event, which marked the first time that Huawei had publicly given a comprehensive look at its cloud strategy.
Hu explained that the company aimed to position itself as the enabler and driver of an intelligent world to become a preferred partner that enables digital and cloud transformation, while actively contributing to the cloud ecosystem through openness, collaboration and shared success.
The CEO said the company was focusing to invest in three key strategic areas in the future: devices, network and cloud. He compared devices to “feelers” that give all things the ability to sense their environments, while networks will connect everything, and the cloud will be the source of intelligence behind all things.
“Over the next five to 10 years, we will see all kinds of smart devices that automatically adapt to various use scenarios. Optical and wireless networks will provide ubiquitous, ultra-broadband connections.
“In the meantime, interconnected computers spread across the planet will aggregate vast amounts of data, forming a ‘digital brain’ in the cloud. This digital brain will evolve in real time, and it will never age, providing intelligence that can be called upon at any time by people and machines via high-speed connections and devices,” he told his audience.
Diana Yuan, president of marketing and solutions sales at Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said Huawei was currently working closely with partners to develop innovative ICT solutions, and helping global customers to drive digital transformation and lead the trend.
The company is focused on customer-centric solutions and strong partnership enabling customers to achieve business success, she said.
To accelerate these shifts, Huawei has established 10 interconnected Open Labs around the world to facilitate fast dialogue around business models, market needs and technology solutions in various markets, she added. Huawei and its global strategic partner Accenture issue enterprise-cloud solutions together.
They jointly provide verified enterprise SAP and Oracle cloud solutions, which are based on the Huawei FusionCloud solution for global enterprise customers’ core applications to provide one-stop service.
In the past two years, experts from Huawei and Accenture have worked side by side to develop enterprise cloud solutions to help clients reduce large capital investment in IT and meet flexible and scalable system requirements, Yuan explained.

Sithichai Chaikriangkrai, the director and executive vice president of the beverage giant, said yesterday that the international ratings agency last month had assigned his company not only a long-term issuer default rating of “BBB” but also a first-time national long-term ratings of “AA+”, both with “stable” outlooks.
“This is a reflection of our strong financial profile as a result of our robust competitive position with a broad and strong distribution network, diversified product portfolio and high barriers to entry, particularly in the alcoholic-beverage business,” said Sithichai, who also serves as the financial head of the company.
The rating agency said ThaiBev was the leader of Thailand’s beverage market, accounting for 90 per cent of the spirits sold in volumes, and 40 per cent of beer sales, despite legal restrictions on the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
The company also maintained an EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin of more than 50 per cent in the spirits segment over the last few years and improved its EBITDA margin on beer to more than 12 per cent of net revenue last year, as a result of the revamp of its product portfolio.
Apart from the alcoholic-beverage segment contributing 87 per cent of total revenue, Sithichai said the company was also putting more focus on non-alcoholic drinks including green tea, soft drinks and the health-conscious beverage segment.
Meanwhile, the company also aims to strengthen its distribution network at home and in Asean countries. Currently the company has more than 400,000 points of sale across Thailand, including retail shops and restaurants. Outside the country, the company now holds 28.5 per cent of regional conglomerate Singapore-based Fraser and Neave, which is an arm to support expansion in the Asean region, particularly in non-alcoholic beverages.
“Through this venture, the company exports Oishi green-tea drinks to Malaysia and Singapore and Chang beer in Singapore. In the meantime, Thai consumers also have access to the 100 Plus energy drink produced by F&N,” he said.
Although the domestic market contributes the lion’s share of sales at 90 per cent, the beverage giant intends to broaden its regional footprints both through F&N and new mergers and acquisitions. By 2020, it targets overseas sales accounting for at least half of total revenue and becoming a leader in the Asean beverage market.
Sithichai said his company was ready for overseas expansion in any form thanks to its strong financial status, with various investment options including its own cash flow of about Bt20 billion, bridge loans and bond issuance.
His comments followed the Vietnamese government’s annou-ncement on Wednesday that it was selling its entire 89.59-per-cent stake in Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco) for US$1.8 billion (Bt62 billion) and its 82-per-cent holding in Hanoi Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp for $404 million.
Regarding this news report, Bloomberg’s website referred to a comment by Euromonitor analyst Andrea Lianto that ThaiBev was among the companies interested in Sebeco. Others were Asahi Group Holdings and Heineken NV.

Sales are seen as likely to drop 3.72 per cent from last year’s level, to Bt15 billion.
The ready-to-drink tea market grew by 0.7 per cent in volume terms last year to 470.7 million litres, but declined 2.5 per cent in value to about Bt15.57 billion, reflecting price-cutting by major players in a sluggish economic environment.
The market in the first seven months of this year fell by Bt612 million, representing a 6.3-per-cent year-to-year contraction to Bt9.11 billion.
In volume terms, the market dropped 4.8 per cent to about 14.2 million litres in the same period.
Ichitan president and chief executive officer Tan Passakornnatee said the problem of generating sales in a tough market situation was very much the same for all players.
“The key issue [for Ichitan] is the decline of our profitability. In the past, we did not utilise our production capacity to the maximum, resulting in a higher average cost per bottle. What we need to do to restore profit is fully utilise our capacity, so that we can reduce the unit cost,” he explained.
This can be achieved by the launch of new products under the group’s current brands – Ichitan green tea, Yen Yen cool herb tea and Bireley’s juices – as well as introducing new branded beverages, he added.
The company recently launched Ichitan Chew Chew ready-to-drink tea with jelly, which targets teenage drinkers, while reducing the size and price of Bireley’s juices from 290ml for Bt13 to 250ml for Bt10 to target the mass market and traditional trade outlets.
“In addition to new product launches, we have expanded our distribution channels both in Thailand and abroad, in order to fully utilise our production capacity. We will also produce beverages for other vendor’s brands under OEM [original-equipment manufacturing]| contracts. These strategies will allow the company to see a |full profit rebound in the| first quarter of next year,” Tan said.
Jesdakorn Ghosh, vice president of Oishi Group, said he expected the domestic ready-to-drink tea market to be stable or decline slightly this year, along with the country’s economic slowdown.
“For Oishi Green Tea, we have however grown our tea business in contrast with the market situation, which is in a state of contraction.
“As the market leader, it is our duty to build consumption, especially among target customers. Our success arises from our ability to create new innovations such as Oishi Kyoho, as well as launching a summer promotional campaign that hit the hearts of our target customers,” the executive said.
Ichitan, which claimed 41 per cent of the overall ready-to-drink tea market in the first seven months of the year, recently launched its Chew Chew jelly drink in the hope of generating Bt250 million in additional sales this year, with the new offering snaring 1.67 per cent of the Bt15-billion market.
In the tea-with-jelly segment, the market is targeted to reach Bt1 billion in sales this year, with Oishi’s Kyoho and Ichitan’s Chew Chew taking the lions’ share.
The sales value of the segment was around Bt390 million in |the first seven months of the |year.