Huawei releases AI database and storage products

Zhu Shenshen / SHINE

Huawei Technologies on Wednesday launched AI database and storage products intended to “redefine” the future information infrastructure.

Huawei’s new releases are noteworthy at a time database giant Oracle began to cut over 900 jobs in China.

Huawei’s new AI-Native GaussDB database features heterogeneous support including ARM architecture. It offers performance 50 percent higher than the industry norm. A new storage product was also released on Wednesday.

“Data is becoming a new means of production, and intelligence is becoming a new form of productivity,” said David Wang, executive director of the board of Huawei. “But data usage and storage still face challenges.”

At present, only 2 percent of data is stored and less than 10 percent used or analyzed, said Wang as he explained the need for the new products.

Global data is set to increase from 32.5 ZB (zettabyte) in 2018 to 180 ZB in 2025, which will create a market worth US$23 trillion. (One ZB equals about 1.07 billion TB or trillion bytes.)

Huawei’s new products will be used in government, finance, smart driving, energy and logistics.

In comparison, Oracle, the world’s largest database company, has begun laying off 900 employees at its R&D centers in China. The US company plans to close all five centers in China and eventually lay off all 1,600 employees, according to media reports.

Huawei’s database can be integrated with other Huawei products including chips and cloud. On databases and storage, Huawei also announced new partnerships with firms including Asiainfo, eHualu, Tata and Yongyou. The company will continue its cooperation with Oracle and SAP.

Huawei has been working on database research since 2011 with a team of 1,500 currently engaged in the subject.

Wang emphasized that Huawei does not own nor have any access to the data, it just helps clients process data. It will ensure security and data protection is “higher than the industry standard.”