Huawei Cloud announced the launch of the Huawei Cloud Riyadh Region at the Huawei Cloud Summit Saudi Arabia 2023. This Region will help promote digital-led economic growth in the country.
The launch of the Huawei Cloud Riyadh Region announced that the Saudi Arabia Region will be Huawei Cloud’s focus in serving the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, providing innovative, reliable, secure, and sustainable cloud services. This achievement underscores Huawei CLOUD’s unwavering dedication to supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, aligned with the nation’s ambitious technological advancement, leadership, and innovation goals.
H.E. Eng. Haitham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ohali, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in Saudi Arabia, shared his perspective on this monumental achievement: “Huawei is a proud partner in our country’s technological progress having worked with the Ministry, service providers, enterprises and universities in various collective efforts towards digital transformation. We look forward to the transformative impact the Huawei Cloud Riyadh Region will have on our digital ecosystem, creating new avenues for innovation and growth.“
The Riyadh Region provides several benefits to customers. First, this region translates Huawei’s global expertise on digital transformation into industries’ excellence, making innovation easier and faster. Huawei Cloud Saudi Region is located in Riyadh and through a 3AZ (availability zone) architecture, it will provide highly available and secure cloud services, ensuring the stable operations of various services. In addition, the Region can provide full-stack cloud services, including infrastructure, databases, containers, big data, and AI services to meet the requirements of various industries.
Based on the 3AZ high-reliability architecture, the Riyadh Region provides low latency, covering all existing carriers’ networks powered by STC, Zain, and Mobily. The local data center will store data locally in line with local data regulations. The company will also launch 68 cloud services in three categories – data, AI, and cloud native.
Steven Yi, Senior Vice President of Huawei and President of Huawei Middle East and Central Asia Region, said: “I’ve cherished numerous unforgettable moments in this extraordinary country. Just yesterday, walking through the newly renovated Diriyah evoked my deep emotions. It brought to mind an old Chinese saying: ‘Build the right nest, and a Phoenix will come.’ The essence is clear: create an inviting environment, and you’ll attract the best. This is undeniably true for Saudi, a nation that consistently attracts top investors.”
The company revealed that Huawei Cloud will utilize a number of industry-leading technologies to advance intelligence for Saudi Arabia, including the Pangu Models 3.0, which address AI adoption challenges, leveraging industry insights to enhance AI capabilities across sectors like finance, government, manufacturing, and more. Pangu Models 3.0 will usher in a new era of innovation in the Kingdom while accelerating economic diversification.
At the Huawei Cloud Summit Saudi Arabia 2023, the company also released the “Saudi Arabia Go Cloud Go Global” program to connect Chinese and Saudi enterprises, fostering growth and innovation. The company will leverage its strong experience of working in more than 170 countries and regions, various industries, advanced technologies, and solutions to help Chinese enterprises enter Saudi Arabia and enhance partnerships with local stakeholders.
Jacqueline Shi, President of Huawei Cloud Global Marketing and Sales Service, said, “Huawei Cloud aims high, aims global, and aims here in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia Region will be our focus in serving the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, providing innovative, reliable, secure, and sustainable cloud services. We hope to create a better choice for advancing intelligence. This cloud gives you more choices to stay innovative, inclusive, and open. This cloud will help you succeed in the digital and intelligent era. This cloud is for everyone.”
At the event, the company also announced that Huawei Cloud will train 200,000 developers in Saudi Arabia in the next five years. It will also build joint solutions with 1,000 local partners and launch the Huawei Cloud Startup Program to help 2,000 startups grow.
Eric Yang, CEO of Huawei Saudi Arabia, said: “We are proudly launching Huawei Cloud Riyadh Region today. It has been a great journey for us in Saudi Arabia for the last 20 years. Huawei is a constructor for an intelligent society, contributor to a thriving economy, and cultivator for a prosperous talent ecosystem. Towards 2030, we will stay dedicated to continuously providing ubiquitous connectivity, green energy, pervasive cloud computing and AI capabilities for Saudi Arabia to unlock unlimited opportunities of the new digital era.”
Huawei Saudi Arabia was founded in 2002 and has played a pivotal role in the digital transformation in Saudi Arabia. Over the course of 19 years, Huawei has collaborated with regional communication service providers (CSPs) to provide reliable network assurance for the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia without incidents. The company also supported the roll-out of 5G in the Kingdom, enabling the country to become one of the world’s pioneer 5G markets. Huawei has helped connect 3.5 million people in rural areas, created 20,000 local jobs, and cultivated 10,000 ICT talents for Saudi Arabia.
Under its “Everything as a Service” strategy, Huawei Cloud is focused on becoming the cloud foundation and enabler of industry digitalization, providing services for customers in more than 170 countries and regions worldwide.
