The world has been severely hit by the pandemic triggered by the widespread coronavirus. All walks of life have been forced to overhaul their lifestyle and work habits. Such transformation couldn’t have been possible without cloud-based services, which allow enterprises to swiftly alter their business models to catch up with these rapid changes.
Imagine if there were no cloud. The “lockdown” would likely keep businesses out of operation. Working from home would be one of the wildest dreams. Online streaming entertainment like Netflix would not be helping so many grounded people with entertainment. Not to mention delivery services like Deliveroo that bring food to families that normally don’t spend much time in the kitchen. All these require robust AI and cloud services to keep things running as “normally” as we can hope for.
Cloud Helps People to Live Normally Amid Abnormal Times
But cloud-based services do more than just let people live as normally as possible in such unprecedented times. The power of cloud has been shown in a wide range of scenarios. It can be as simple as online meetings, or some complex tasks requiring AI and cloud computing, such as gene sequencing, drug screening, diagnosis, epidemic survey. It can be used to monitor whether people are properly wearing masks. Everything counts.
In terms of education, with so many students grounded, online learning becomes essential, and it requires solid cloud-based services. It is more than just providing cloud space for virtual meetings; it also requires a host of tools to maintain teaching standards.
As an international ICT enterprise, Huawei is devoted to making the world better. Among those measures is the TECH4ALL corporate program, which aims to help everyone gain access to technology. Amid this pandemic, we see the urgent need of technologies to ensure that deliverables reach the right places.
Huawei’s Chief Representative to the EU Institutions, Abraham Liu
Through “solidarity, trust and innovation”, Europe can lead the world out of the current coronavirus pandemic and into a new cycle of economic growth, Huawei’s Chief Representative to the EU Institutions, Abraham Liu, told a conference in Brussels. Europe has a unique opportunity to lead the world out of this crisis as a major power – but only if it remains united,” said Mr Liu.
“Companies like Huawei can help get people working again and revive economies,” said Mr Liu: “This can help build bridges again between countries. We are a major employer in Europe and we will continue to create jobs. Our sector is fundamental to Europe’s recovery. Digital technology and communications should be the building blocks of Europe’s recovery plan.”
Various Sectors Can Benefit from Cloud-Based Services
Among different measures under the international action plan, HUAWEI CLOUD is now providing AI and cloud services to help customers around the world fight epidemics. The initiatives cover various domains ranging from medical and educational to enterprise supports. For education, HUAWEI CLOUD is currently working with various partners to provide online education services for schools and other educational institutions. More than 1,000 schools are using the HUAWEI CLOUD online education solution, and the results have been impressive.
On the healthcare front, HUAWEI CLOUD is providing EIHealth services. Powered by the advantages of AI and big data technologies, EIHealth provides a professional AI R&D platform to accelerate AI applications in genomics, drug discovery, and medical imaging. The free services include viral genome detection, antiviral drug in silico screening, and AI-assisted CT patient screening service, and more. Since January, the HUAWEI CLOUD AI solution has been used at more than 100 medical institutions.
In the business sector, enterprises are also receiving support to migrate businesses to the cloud to ensure continuous operations while the pandemic continues. HUAWEI CLOUD is now offering a 12-month package with up to 1,500 hours of free cloud resources for each newly registered user, complete with 24/7 professional support online. In February, HUAWEI CLOUD launched a special program, providing free cloud resource packages for small and medium-sized enterprises during the pandemic. Other solutions are also ready to be in place to support work resumption.
Joint Efforts Necessary to Fight Pandemic
Because it will take collective efforts to weather this hardship, Huawei is hoping more organizations can get together to help everyone in the critical moments. In fact, significant progress has been seen in many regions, where Huawei is working with partners to provide support to hospitals, medical care facilities, and SMEs.
In Malaysia, for instance, Huawei works with the country’s Ministry of Health to contribute the Huawei Cloud AI-assisted Diagnosis solution to Sungai Buloh Hospital. The goal is to empower local medical personnel with AI capabilities by providing an AI solution for CT image analysis of possible COVID-19 patients. ULearning of Indonesia is providing online education in local universities via Huawei’s solutions, while Singapore’s 7-Network provides a health information report platform for small and medium-sized enterprises with support from HUAWEI CLOUD.
Other countries including Ecuador and Panama are using AI technology to screen COVID-19 in several hospitals, while Argentina International Airport is applying an intelligent thermal imaging temperature measurement system. These technologies are launched by HUAWEI CLOUD and local partners.
At the same time, Huawei is also supporting numerous initiatives led by other private organizations to fight Covid-19 by providing cloud and AI technologies as well as tech support.
Strongly believing in partnership, Huawei hopes more organizations can work together to help not only to fight the epidemic but to help the world recover within a reasonable time frame. Only unity will help us win this war.
For more information, please visit Huawei Cloud at: https://activity.huaweicloud.com/intl/en-us/fight-covid-19.html
