"Today, every industry must embrace AI. We need robust AI computing power, and Huawei Cloud is committed to rooting technology and becoming the fertile soil for AI computing. We aim to drive innovation in intelligent applications across industries, work hand in hand with partners to build core technology ecosystems, and collectively accelerate the intelligence transformation of myriad industries." On March 15th, at the 2024 Huawei Cloud & Huawei Terminal Cloud Innovation Summit, Zhang Ping'an, Executive Director and CEO of Huawei Cloud, stated. On June 3, 2021, Zhang Ping'an introduced the "Cloud-to-Cloud Collaboration" strategy for the first time, aiming to deeply integrate the infrastructure foundation of Huawei Cloud with the mobile application ecosystem of Huawei Terminal Cloud Services, offering developers and partners a unified service and experience.
By 2024, with the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, "Cloud-to-Cloud Collaboration" has entered a new phase: the deep integration of HarmonyOS and Ascend Cloud is set to break through the limitations in computing power and AI capabilities, providing enterprises within the HarmonyOS ecosystem with a faster, more powerful, and more reliable intelligent development experience.
HarmonyOS allows for development once and deployment across multiple devices, making application development more efficient. Ascend AI Cloud services, ready to use upon activation, offer a full-chain cloudified toolchain, enabling rapid implementation of "multi-modal and multi-scenario" applications. The system-level AI capabilities of Ascend Cloud are integrated into the HarmonyOS system, endowing HarmonyOS applications with native intelligence and a robust cloud computing power to fuel their intelligent functionalities. The new HarmonyOS operating system boasts native security features and a new privacy protection mechanism. Combined with Ascend Cloud's full-stack autonomy and Huawei Cloud's comprehensive security system, it creates a more stable and reliable development environment for natively intelligent applications. As of the beginning of 2024, the HarmonyOS ecosystem has reached a whopping 800 million devices, encompassing high-frequency use terminals like smartphones, PCs, tablets, smart screens, and vehicle systems. Thousands of businesses and institutions have kicked off the development of HarmonyOS native apps, including powerhouse apps like Alipay, Taobao, Meituan, JD.com, DingTalk, Gaode Maps, and Xiaohongshu. Looking ahead, applications across thousands of industries will leap towards intelligence on the AI innovation ecosystem co-created by HarmonyOS and Ascend Cloud.
HarmonyOS Paves the Way for Native Intelligent App Development
In his speech, Zhu Yonggang, President of Huawei's Consumer Cloud Service, highlighted the explosive industrial vitality triggered by cloud synergy. "Huawei Cloud is our fertile soil," he remarked, providing the HarmonyOS ecosystem with a continuous stream of computing power. Zhu Yonggang stated that the brand-new HarmonyOS ecosystem, featuring distributed architecture, full-scene capabilities, and native intelligence, will spark new focal points and vitality in the future service and content ecosystems. It will enable the creation of innovative experiences. HarmonyOS is not just an operating system; it's a whole new ecosystem, a world filled with endless possibilities. "The massive scale of 800 million devices across various scenarios lays a solid foundation for the synergy between Huawei Cloud and Huawei's terminal cloud in terms of capabilities and ecosystems. This allows our diversified services to efficiently reach a broader audience and brings more growth opportunities to partners across numerous industries."
"HarmonyOS is the first operating system in human history that integrates hardware and scenarios, supports various interactions, and allows for free flow across different contexts. Its key feature, develop once, deploy across multiple devices, means that applications can seamlessly access services across tablets, PCs, smart screens, TVs, watches, smart vehicle systems, and more. This not only reduces development costs but also opens new commercial opportunities with just a single development effort," said Zhu Yonggang.
One of the highlights of the HarmonyOS is its intelligence. By integrating Huawei's AI capabilities into the operating system level and empowering over 15 subsystems, HarmonyOS has built a native intelligence base. This will enable native AI capabilities on the device side in the future, further enhancing service distribution efficiency and offering consumers a brand-new experience.
The application of the Pangu model further improves the system's ability to understand and match users' advanced intentions, helping developers more precisely reach their target audience, thus optimizing user experience and application efficiency.
HarmonyOS also offers seamless integration of AI widget capabilities, making the development of intelligent applications more efficient. With just one line of code, developers can invoke system-level native AI capabilities, lowering the barrier to development and ensuring users can enjoy a consistent AI interaction experience across different applications.
Zhu Yonggang revealed that in the fourth quarter of this year, the consumer version of HarmonyOS NEXT, dubbed the "HarmonyOS Galaxy Edition," will be launched. By the end of the year, HarmonyOS aims to achieve the development of over 5,000 native apps, ultimately reaching over 500,000 native applications. He emphasized that the world of HarmonyOS is open and the opportunities within it are shared. Every partner is a practitioner of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, with various ways to integrate into the HarmonyOS ecosystem. "We hope to embark on a new ecological path together with our partners!"
Huawei Cloud is committed to building fertile ground for AI computing power in China.
Shi Jilin, the Global Marketing and Sales Service President of Huawei Cloud, shared insights on going global, AI, and ecosystems: "We aim to deepen our overseas strategy to facilitate a leap in commercial development for Chinese enterprises abroad; center around large models to achieve a leap in the commercialization of AI; and build a new ecosystem centered on HarmonyOS to achieve a leap in ecosystem development." For China, the scarcity and expense of computing power have become the primary constraints on intelligent innovation, especially for the development of AI applications across various industries. Cloud-based computing power, as an efficient, flexible, and scalable solution, is gradually becoming the preferred choice for overcoming these computing bottlenecks. Huawei's Ascend Cloud, as the only fully self-developed AI cloud computing infrastructure in China, not only provides robust support for the HarmonyOS ecosystem but also fuels diverse AI applications with strong momentum.
Ascend Cloud offers powerful, efficient, and instantly deployable intelligent computing resources. Enterprise users can seamlessly access three major AI computing centers in Gui'an, Ulanqab, and Wuhu, along with over 30 sub-nodes. Each data center provides formidable computing power of up to hundreds of EFLOPS, capable of handling large-scale models with trillions of parameters. With the ability to utilize thousands of cards for computation per task and accommodate data scales of up to hundreds of petabytes for extensive training, Ascend Cloud ensures high-performance computing on demand.
The instant deployability of Ascend Cloud means enterprises no longer need to build or modify data centers nor invest heavily in AI technologies, significantly reducing costs. For instance, with the full-stack optimization based on distributed architecture, the caching acceleration of training and inference data achieves a 30% improvement in unit computing power cost-effectiveness. Additionally, multi-cloud deployment and cloud-edge synergy in computing power management enable rapid elasticity of computing power, resulting in a 50% cost reduction.
Ascend Cloud also boasts an efficient and user-friendly full-stack platform capability. It integrates comprehensive services from cloud-based computing power and model development to model hosting and ecosystem support. Users can choose different service modes according to their needs, achieving integrated training and inference. In addition to Ascend Cloud, Huawei Cloud also offers full-stack AI cloud capabilities including Panggu large models and ModelArts, providing end-to-end support for enterprise users from data processing and model training to application deployment.
Ascend Cloud holds significant advantages in large-scale training. With end-to-end quality management and real-time assurance, coupled with the cloud-native operation and maintenance system, it ensures 24/7 cloud-based operational services. This deterministic operation and maintenance can keep the job failure rate below 5‰, even during 30 days of continuous training using thousands of cards, maintaining stability.
Zhang Ping'an stated that Huawei Cloud aspires to build a new core technology ecosystem, providing core technological support for all developers and innovators in China. By constructing this core technology ecosystem, Huawei aims to foster the growth and flourishing of AI innovation in China.