(Photo: VCG)
Cloud computing is now gradually becoming a basic public service just like water and power supplies, and more and more traditional enterprises are embracing the booming industry.
Government departments, traditional enterprises and tech firms are creating new possibilities in their cooperation over cloud computing.
Cloud computing allows enterprises to move their basic information and technology infrastructure to cloud servers, so as to access computing, storage, data and application services in a more convenient manner through the internet.
This method helps enterprises significantly lower production and management costs, improve the quality of products and services, and enhance their efficiency and competitiveness.
At present, physical entities are facing multiple challenges such as an overall rise in costs. Cloud computing stands as a key factor for them to cope with these challenges. By moving their deployment to the cloud, they can manage data and documents with more security and efficiency, realize multifunctional and cross-regional cooperation among staff members, and allocate production, logistics, and storage resources more efficiently.
“Cloud computing saved us nearly two-thirds of our investment in hardware,” said Zhu Hua, an IT expert with Anhui Konka Electronic Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Chinese electronics products manufacturer Konka Group.
He told the People’s Daily that his company used to spend a lot on hardware, but now nearly 5 million yuan ($xx0,000) has been saved each year after the company moved its servers and parts of its applications to the cloud servers.
Pan Shengli, chief technology officer of electric bike producer SUNRA based in Jiangsu Province, noted that the company is now moving to cloud-based services for its data warehouse, supplier management system, ordering system, store management system and marketing personnel management system. “It will lower the operational costs of the company and offer better user experiences,” he said.
Customized orders are seeing larger and larger demand in today’s world – a trend forcing traditional manufacturers to resort to cloud computing and seek solutions through digitalization and information technology.
Sunevap is an energy company based in Jiangsu Province. It specializes in producing mechanical vapor recompression devices. The company produces highly customized products. Each device is manufactured with a unique drawing, said Zhang Xiaojiang, general manager of the company. Thanks to cloud management, Sunevap avoided enormous unnecessary waste that could have happened with traditional production methods.
Local governments across China are also stepping up efforts to promote cloud management among enterprises.
Jiangsu launched a program to spur innovative development of industrial internet services two years ago, focusing on leading enterprises that have turned to cloud computing, exemplary factories using industrial internet applications, and industrial internet platforms. The program focuses on six advanced manufacturing sectors: new energy equipment, engineering machinery, the internet of things, core information technology, automobiles and parts, and bio-pharmaceuticals and new medical apparatuses.
Hu Xuetong, deputy director of the Industry Information and Technology Department of Jiangsu, noted that over 250,000 enterprises in the province had applied for cloud computing funding by the end of last year, including 3,000 that had been rated as “starred level” and 34 as “benchmarks.” In addition, 11 advanced manufacturing bases have been created.
The province, aiming to drive the development of small- and medium-sized cloud services organizations, will work to offer more solutions to industries, improve services, and satisfy enterprises’ demand for industrial internet applications.
The turn to cloud computing is becoming a mainstream trend for enterprises and governments. More and more users are trying to use cloud services to solve difficulties in traditional offline scenarios, and tens of thousands of enterprises have resorted to cloud services to achieve digital transformation.
However, cloud services are still in their initial stage in China. According to a white paper on the cloud computing industry issued last year, around 40 percent of Chinese enterprises had utilized cloud services, a figure far lower than that in Europe and America.
In this regard, the country needs to further build enterprises’ trust for the technology and enhance its security, so as to achieve wider applications and make the technology benefit more industries.