More than 20,000 ICT industry leaders and experts from over 120 countries and regions gathered on Wednesday for the very first HUAWEI CONNECT, Huawei's largest-ever integrated conference for the global ICT ecosystem. Held in Shanghai, the theme of this three-day event is "Shape the Cloud," aimed at exploring cloud era trends and how different industries can achieve digital transformation by developing cloud technology and contributing to the cloud ecosystem.

This event marks the first time that Huawei has publicly given a comprehensive look at its cloud strategy. During the first keynote, Ken Hu, Huawei's Rotating CEO, explained that the company aims to position itself as the enabler and driver of an intelligent world. The company will hold true to its culture of customer-centricity, focus on ICT infrastructure, and provide innovative cloud technology. Throughout this process, Huawei aims to become a preferred partner that enables digital and cloud transformation, while actively contributing to the cloud ecosystem through openness, collaboration, and shared success.
 
Information and communications technology (ICT) will be the cornerstone of an intelligent world. Ken Hu compared devices to "feelers" that give all things the ability to sense their environments. Networks will connect everything, and the cloud will be the source of intelligence behind all things. These three elements form a synergetic architecture of devices, information pipes, and the cloud, and they are the strategic focus of Huawei's investment in the future.
 
"Over the next five to ten years we will see all kinds of smart devices that automatically adapt to various use scenarios. All people and all things will have the ability to sense their surroundings, and devices will serve as entry points to the intelligent world. 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," said Ken Hu, Huawei's Rotating CEO.
 
Hu noted that enterprises are the main players in the cloud era, as solution innovation will revolve around their specific needs. In this context, Huawei will stay customer-centric, gaining insight into customer needs and developing innovative technology that addresses them. The company provides its customers with easy-to-deliver and easy-to-operate hybrid cloud solutions that are based on unified, open architecture.
 
These solutions are highly open and secure, and offer enterprise-grade performance in an integrated one-stop environment, aspects of functionality that are designed in direct response to customer pain points. In addition to individual solutions, Huawei stresses that the cloud ecosystem must be developed around creating value for customers, and that every organization within the ecosystem must contribute its own unique value. Hu emphasized that Huawei isn't going to release a handful of clouds on its own; as an ecosystem enabler, Huawei aims to help all of its customers build all manner of clouds.
 
Enterprises that were born in the cloud led the development of the first cloud era, disrupting industries around the world. Hu believes that the next ten years will be the era of Cloud 2.0, marking the rise of countless industry clouds. By 2025, Huawei predicts that all enterprise IT solutions will be cloudified, and more than 85% of enterprise applications will be cloud-based. Every company will integrate its core business with the cloud, and will be on the look-out for the cloud solutions that suit them best. Hu shared some of Huawei's own experience with cloudification, emphasizing that it's important to generate value from the cloud, and laid out three measures that can help companies do just that.
 
First, Hu noted, it's vital for enterprises to change their mindsets around the role of ICT: They should start treating ICT as a production system instead of a support system, and proactively use technology to redesign their production processes. Second, enterprises should rethink talent, and equip their employees with basic ICT knowledge, particularly as it applies to cloud technology. Third, enterprises should think big and act small, making headway with tactical, gradual improvements that build lasting confidence in new technology and the success it brings.
 
"Cloud is changing everything," Hu went on to say. "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."
 
At this year's HUAWEI CONNECT, Huawei's three rotating CEOs – Ken Hu, Eric Xu, and Guo Ping – will open each day with keynote speeches. Other keynote speakers include Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO; Vishal Sikka, Infosys CEO; Thomas Saueressig, SAP Senior Vice President; and Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT Sloan School of Management.
 
HUAWEI CONNECT 2016 brings together ecosystem players in an 18,000m2 interactive exhibition hall at the Expo Center in Shanghai, China. Half of the exhibition floor will showcase the capabilities of Huawei's industry partners, including 80 industry organizations and sponsors of Huawei and the industry ecosystem. Major partners in attendance include Intel, HGST, SAP, Accenture, Infosys, OpenStack, and GSMA. During the conference, Huawei will focus on four key technologies (Cloud, Big Data, Software Defined Networking [SDN], and IoT), and launch eight flagship solutions for its cloud storage, cloud services, and SDN controllers. These solutions are designed to enable the digital agenda of customers across nine sectors, including government and public utilities, finance, telecom, energy, and media.