More Chinese enterprises resort to cloud services for better management

By Cao Shulin, Wu Shan, People’s Daily

The booming cloud computing is now gradually becoming a basic public service just like water and power supplies, and more and more traditional enterprises are embracing it today.

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 acquire 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 quality of products and services, and enhance their efficiency and competitiveness.

At present, physical entities are facing multiple challenges such as an overall rise of cost, while 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 2/3 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 People’s Daily that his company used to spend much on hardware, but now nearly 5 million yuan is 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 its data warehouse, supplier management system, ordering system, store management system and marketing personnel management system. “It will lower the operational cost of the company and offer better user experiences,” he said.

Customized, as well as small-lot and multi-variety 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 informatization.

Sunevap is an energy company based in Jiangsu province. It specializes in producing mechanical vapor recompression devices. What the company produces is highly customized that 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 method.

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 two years ago, focusing on leading enterprises that have resorted to cloud computing, exemplary factories of industrial internet, and industrial internet platforms, as well as 6 advanced manufacturing sectors such as new energy equipment, engineering machinery, internet of things, bio-pharmaceuticals and new medical apparatuses, core information technology and auto and auto parts.

Hu Xuetong, deputy director of Industry Information and Technology Department of Jiangsu, noted that over 250,000 enterprises in the province had applied cloud computing by the end of last year, including 3,000 that had been rated as “starred level” and 34 as “benchmarks”. Besides, 11 advanced manufacturing bases featuring “Internet+” had been created.

The province, aiming to drive the development of small- and medium-sized service organizations, will work to offer more solutions to industries, improve services, and satisfy enterprises’ demand for the application of industrial internet.

Cloud computing is becoming a mainstream trend for enterprises and government. 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 to achieve digital transformation.

However, cloud service is still at the initial stage in China. According to a white paper on 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 application and make the technology benefit more industries.

A vegetable mart in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province hangs a screen where sales data and test results of food safety are displayed, in an attempt to assure the consumers. Photo by Long Wei, People’s Daily Online