China is a digital power. Impressions of Huawei Connect 2017
In September, the annual Huawei conference was held in Shanghai, which the vendor holds for its potential and current customers, as well as partners. This is a major event with a large number of participants and speakers, where you can learn about trends and news in various areas of IT. Every time we send our specialists to the conference. Andrey Shaposhnikov, Deputy Director of the Jet Infosystems Technical Center, shares his impressions.
Shanghai is considered the business center of China, so it’s perfectly logical that this city has become the home of the Huawei conference. Here comes a lot of flights from around the world, there is a huge number of modern hotels, and there is all the necessary exhibition infrastructure.
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The Huawei Connect conference - the event of the Huawei Enterprise division - lasted three days this year and took place in five large pavilions of the exhibition center. The program included an exhibition, located in two pavilions, and reports - starting with the presentation by Huawei's management on the future of the IT industry and ending with specific presentations by vendor specialists and partners.
One exhibition pavilion was dedicated to infrastructure solutions and Huawei product lines, and the second was devoted to vertically integrated solutions broken down by industry: banking, retail, telecom, etc. Because Huawei Enterprise concentrates on infrastructure products (and business consumers services are not interesting infrastructure, and solutions for specific business problems), the vendor is widely attracted to the organization of the exhibition of its partners, who develop industry solutions and implement them with customers. That is, the second pavilion was, in fact, filled with partnership solutions that used certain Huawei products.
I was interested in the conference and product innovations of the vendor, and his vision for the development of the IT market, and partner solutions based on Huawei products.
Today, many Western vendors are experiencing a business transformation associated with the "Commodity" of infrastructure solutions and the development of cloud technologies. For example, IBM sold its x86 platform to Lenovo and focuses on software solutions, on working with data, with mobile users and social networks. HP has isolated the corporate business into a separate company and derived its software solutions from it. Oracle, according to the latest rumors, is increasingly inclined to abandon proprietary hardware solutions (SPARC) in favor of the clouds, its software solutions and the x86 platform. HDS and Dell EMC are also in the process of transformation.
There is a feeling that a hardware-based business is becoming less and less profitable for IT companies (at least, western ones) and they are in the process of searching for some intermediate program or marketing links linking the “clean” infrastructure to solving problems valuable to business.
Apparently, Huawei is also looking for a solution - now it is on the way of creating a “marketplace” that unites partner solutions. In China, the vendor has a large affiliate network, and, since in his native country, the vendor mainly sells equipment to customers directly, his partners are companies that develop their software, vertical solutions. The Open Lab initiative is also aimed at the development of the affiliate network. This is a network of laboratories around the world in which a set of Huawei hardware and software is presented. There, partners can use hardware and software capacities plus knowledge of local or experts from China to better adapt their software solutions on Huawei hardware. The appearance of such an Open Lab has already been announced in Moscow.
A large exposition in the pavilion of industrial solutions was devoted to the theme Safe city - a safe city. The direction includes many technical aspects: an extensive video surveillance system, a system of various sensors with different signal transmission technologies - RFID, Wi-Fi, LTE. Huawei offers a communication infrastructure, data storage and processing facilities, a video surveillance system, etc. On the basis of these products, various partners create, for example, large video information display systems for emergency services. An interesting solution is to add such a system with virtual reality glasses, complete with a special joystick pointer. The operator puts on glasses and gets into the virtual space through which he can move, quickly move to pictures from specific cameras, open various sections of information relating to a particular object, terrain, event. Thus, the operator of the control service is more deeply immersed in what is happening, in some specific situation.
An interesting system of video image analysis with automatic recognition seemed to be interesting. On the stand lay mock-ups of various items — as soon as they were picked up, the system immediately displayed the signature on the screen — what it is (or what it looks like). Took a gun or a hatchet - an alarm is given.
The exhibition, which was very crowded at any time of the day, was moved by a small robot to observe public order, equipped with video cameras and sensors. He independently maneuvered in the crowd, successfully avoiding collisions, which aroused great interest among visitors.
By the way, in the other pavilion there was a huge stand, also dedicated to the recognition of video images using AI / ML. In particular, the system recognized unauthorized crowds.
The Smart Retail section, representing a set of retail solutions, attracted my attention. In one of them a network of video cameras shoots the entire trading hall from above. When a visitor enters, his gender and approximate age are recognized, and then the system records all his movements around the hall and the time he stopped at one or another stand. This makes it possible to more accurately analyze the actions of various categories of customers in order to purposefully place and arrange shelves with goods.
Another solution was a virtual fitting room - you come up to a mirror-display, on it you choose some clothes, which are immediately dynamically superimposed on your image. Nearby was a stand where augmented reality glasses were displayed for store employees, where the chosen item of clothing was also dynamically superimposed on the image of the client.
Another solution demonstrated the ability to work with RFID tags: on the wall there is a screen and a shelf with three pairs of sneakers, you take a pair - the information on this model and its price appear on the screen. You take two pairs - a comparative table is displayed on the screen.
A large section of Digital Banking showed the mobile workplace of an employee who is engaged in issuing bank cards. It consists of a laptop, a mobile card printing device and an identification device, which includes a fingerprint sensor and a wireless ID card reader. By the way, a Chinese passport is a plastic card with a chip and wireless data transmission. All ID manipulations are very quick and easy. Suppose a company wants to issue bank cards to its employees. A person comes to the office with this set of equipment, opens a laptop, asks to enter his personal data, identify himself, attach an ID-card and leave a “finger”. If you have any questions, you can immediately via video link to consult with a bank specialist. And when everything is ready, you are immediately printed a card, which you can immediately use.
It seems that only a stationary solution was shown at Connect 2016: an ATM equipped with a screen for video communication can not only perform standard operations with customer’s bank cards, issue new cards, but generally serve as a point of contact with the bank on a wide range of issues through a video call operator -centre.
Naturally, in the pavilion of infrastructure solutions, many new products were presented: new all-weather access points,
and the conceptually new distributed router P-Router,
latest NVMe flash arrays
and equipment for liquid cooled HPC,
and many many others…
But, in my opinion, the great attention paid by the vendor to the IoT theme was indicative - almost the fifth part of the pavilion was set aside for the exhibition. The fact is that Huawei produces chips used in such devices. Quite a lot there were IoT solutions for the national economy: all sorts of sensors for “smart” water supply, heating, leakage sensors, etc. And in China it really works: there are practical examples of improving the efficiency of companies that have implemented smart water supply systems in particular.
But, of course, I saw the most vivid example of using IoT technology on the streets of Shanghai. Already on the way from the airport to the hotel, I noticed that the entire city is literally littered with bicycles of various colors and designs (there are even electric bicycles).
As it turned out, over the past year, several rental companies for two-wheeled “horses” started their work in the city. But if in Moscow, for example, rental bicycles are only in special parking lots near the metro, here you can take them and leave them anywhere in the city.
The Chinese still invented the bicycle (or, at least, the tire):
On the rear hub of each bike is a special module with an electronic lock, GSM-and GPS-transmitters. On the case there is a QR code, which can be photographed in the corporate application, paid for the rent there, after which the lock is unlocked - and you can go.
Ride, you leave the bike where you want, in the application you confirm the end of use, and the lock is locked. The battery inside the module lasts for two years. In my opinion, the perfect implementation of the concept of the Internet of things.
* * *
I got the impression that today China is the world leader in the implementation of digital systems in all spheres of life. For example, the level of penetration of the electronic payment system is such that you can travel all over the country, buying tickets, paying at hotels and shops, using only a card or even a phone with an account linked to your Alipay account.
Well, Huawei, as one of the world's IT leaders, through activities such as Huawei Connect, brings ideas of digital transformation beyond the country - to new markets, new projects and new customers.
Shanghai is considered the business center of China, so it’s perfectly logical that this city has become the home of the Huawei conference. Here comes a lot of flights from around the world, there is a huge number of modern hotels, and there is all the necessary exhibition infrastructure.
')
The Huawei Connect conference - the event of the Huawei Enterprise division - lasted three days this year and took place in five large pavilions of the exhibition center. The program included an exhibition, located in two pavilions, and reports - starting with the presentation by Huawei's management on the future of the IT industry and ending with specific presentations by vendor specialists and partners.
One exhibition pavilion was dedicated to infrastructure solutions and Huawei product lines, and the second was devoted to vertically integrated solutions broken down by industry: banking, retail, telecom, etc. Because Huawei Enterprise concentrates on infrastructure products (and business consumers services are not interesting infrastructure, and solutions for specific business problems), the vendor is widely attracted to the organization of the exhibition of its partners, who develop industry solutions and implement them with customers. That is, the second pavilion was, in fact, filled with partnership solutions that used certain Huawei products.
Where are we going?
I was interested in the conference and product innovations of the vendor, and his vision for the development of the IT market, and partner solutions based on Huawei products.
Today, many Western vendors are experiencing a business transformation associated with the "Commodity" of infrastructure solutions and the development of cloud technologies. For example, IBM sold its x86 platform to Lenovo and focuses on software solutions, on working with data, with mobile users and social networks. HP has isolated the corporate business into a separate company and derived its software solutions from it. Oracle, according to the latest rumors, is increasingly inclined to abandon proprietary hardware solutions (SPARC) in favor of the clouds, its software solutions and the x86 platform. HDS and Dell EMC are also in the process of transformation.
There is a feeling that a hardware-based business is becoming less and less profitable for IT companies (at least, western ones) and they are in the process of searching for some intermediate program or marketing links linking the “clean” infrastructure to solving problems valuable to business.
Apparently, Huawei is also looking for a solution - now it is on the way of creating a “marketplace” that unites partner solutions. In China, the vendor has a large affiliate network, and, since in his native country, the vendor mainly sells equipment to customers directly, his partners are companies that develop their software, vertical solutions. The Open Lab initiative is also aimed at the development of the affiliate network. This is a network of laboratories around the world in which a set of Huawei hardware and software is presented. There, partners can use hardware and software capacities plus knowledge of local or experts from China to better adapt their software solutions on Huawei hardware. The appearance of such an Open Lab has already been announced in Moscow.
Curiosities from partners
A large exposition in the pavilion of industrial solutions was devoted to the theme Safe city - a safe city. The direction includes many technical aspects: an extensive video surveillance system, a system of various sensors with different signal transmission technologies - RFID, Wi-Fi, LTE. Huawei offers a communication infrastructure, data storage and processing facilities, a video surveillance system, etc. On the basis of these products, various partners create, for example, large video information display systems for emergency services. An interesting solution is to add such a system with virtual reality glasses, complete with a special joystick pointer. The operator puts on glasses and gets into the virtual space through which he can move, quickly move to pictures from specific cameras, open various sections of information relating to a particular object, terrain, event. Thus, the operator of the control service is more deeply immersed in what is happening, in some specific situation.
An interesting system of video image analysis with automatic recognition seemed to be interesting. On the stand lay mock-ups of various items — as soon as they were picked up, the system immediately displayed the signature on the screen — what it is (or what it looks like). Took a gun or a hatchet - an alarm is given.
The exhibition, which was very crowded at any time of the day, was moved by a small robot to observe public order, equipped with video cameras and sensors. He independently maneuvered in the crowd, successfully avoiding collisions, which aroused great interest among visitors.
By the way, in the other pavilion there was a huge stand, also dedicated to the recognition of video images using AI / ML. In particular, the system recognized unauthorized crowds.
The Smart Retail section, representing a set of retail solutions, attracted my attention. In one of them a network of video cameras shoots the entire trading hall from above. When a visitor enters, his gender and approximate age are recognized, and then the system records all his movements around the hall and the time he stopped at one or another stand. This makes it possible to more accurately analyze the actions of various categories of customers in order to purposefully place and arrange shelves with goods.
Another solution was a virtual fitting room - you come up to a mirror-display, on it you choose some clothes, which are immediately dynamically superimposed on your image. Nearby was a stand where augmented reality glasses were displayed for store employees, where the chosen item of clothing was also dynamically superimposed on the image of the client.
Another solution demonstrated the ability to work with RFID tags: on the wall there is a screen and a shelf with three pairs of sneakers, you take a pair - the information on this model and its price appear on the screen. You take two pairs - a comparative table is displayed on the screen.
A large section of Digital Banking showed the mobile workplace of an employee who is engaged in issuing bank cards. It consists of a laptop, a mobile card printing device and an identification device, which includes a fingerprint sensor and a wireless ID card reader. By the way, a Chinese passport is a plastic card with a chip and wireless data transmission. All ID manipulations are very quick and easy. Suppose a company wants to issue bank cards to its employees. A person comes to the office with this set of equipment, opens a laptop, asks to enter his personal data, identify himself, attach an ID-card and leave a “finger”. If you have any questions, you can immediately via video link to consult with a bank specialist. And when everything is ready, you are immediately printed a card, which you can immediately use.
It seems that only a stationary solution was shown at Connect 2016: an ATM equipped with a screen for video communication can not only perform standard operations with customer’s bank cards, issue new cards, but generally serve as a point of contact with the bank on a wide range of issues through a video call operator -centre.
Vendor New
Naturally, in the pavilion of infrastructure solutions, many new products were presented: new all-weather access points,
and the conceptually new distributed router P-Router,
latest NVMe flash arrays
and equipment for liquid cooled HPC,
and many many others…
But, in my opinion, the great attention paid by the vendor to the IoT theme was indicative - almost the fifth part of the pavilion was set aside for the exhibition. The fact is that Huawei produces chips used in such devices. Quite a lot there were IoT solutions for the national economy: all sorts of sensors for “smart” water supply, heating, leakage sensors, etc. And in China it really works: there are practical examples of improving the efficiency of companies that have implemented smart water supply systems in particular.
But, of course, I saw the most vivid example of using IoT technology on the streets of Shanghai. Already on the way from the airport to the hotel, I noticed that the entire city is literally littered with bicycles of various colors and designs (there are even electric bicycles).
As it turned out, over the past year, several rental companies for two-wheeled “horses” started their work in the city. But if in Moscow, for example, rental bicycles are only in special parking lots near the metro, here you can take them and leave them anywhere in the city.
The Chinese still invented the bicycle (or, at least, the tire):
On the rear hub of each bike is a special module with an electronic lock, GSM-and GPS-transmitters. On the case there is a QR code, which can be photographed in the corporate application, paid for the rent there, after which the lock is unlocked - and you can go.
Ride, you leave the bike where you want, in the application you confirm the end of use, and the lock is locked. The battery inside the module lasts for two years. In my opinion, the perfect implementation of the concept of the Internet of things.
* * *
I got the impression that today China is the world leader in the implementation of digital systems in all spheres of life. For example, the level of penetration of the electronic payment system is such that you can travel all over the country, buying tickets, paying at hotels and shops, using only a card or even a phone with an account linked to your Alipay account.
Well, Huawei, as one of the world's IT leaders, through activities such as Huawei Connect, brings ideas of digital transformation beyond the country - to new markets, new projects and new customers.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/340252/
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