Huawei is all in on flash storage – but it faces some stiff competition

“The future is flash”, according to Willi Song, president at Huawei European Enterprise Business, and the tech giant appears all in as it looks to streamline enterprise AI adoption.

Speaking at the Innovative Data Infrastructure (IDI) Forum in Munich, Germany, Song and colleagues detailed the company’s sharpened focus on flash storage, unveiling the official launch of its AI Data Lake and OceanStor Pacific all-flash series.

A key factor behind this push, attendees were told, lies in the benefits flash can offer enterprises in the age of AI. It’s more energy efficient, scalable, and cost effective compared to traditional storage solutions, and industry providers have been keen to highlight these advantages in recent years as firms grapple with rising costs.

At Pure Accelerate 2024, the annual conference hosted by Pure Storage, the company waxed lyrical about the enterprise benefits of flash, while competitors such as NetApp have been ramping up similar offerings on this front.

Indeed, research by SNS Insider shows the all-flash array market is booming, reaching a value of $14.59 billion in 2023 and expected to reach over $74 billion by 2032.

Tapping into this lucrative market is a huge opportunity for Huawei, but it does face stiff competition - it’s butting heads with heavyweights like Dell Technologies, HPE, and the aforementioned duo.

Huawei agility a key appeal

Peter Zhou, president of Huawei Data Storage Product Line, told ITPro one key differentiator for the company lies in its significant R&D investment..

“We’re very strong on R&D investment,” he said. “Some data storage vendors, they’ve got less investment than Huawei - because the data storage market was occupied by public cloud. But what we’ve been seeing is that the importance of data will be emphasized more and more.”

Huawei currently operates more than 29 R&D centres across Europe, along with two open labs and boasts close collaborative ties with over 200 universities. The company has made great efforts to embed itself across a variety of industries in the region and is very much playing the long game.

In his opening keynote, Song noted the company’s commitment to European operations.

“Europe is one of our most important markets,” he said. “We will stay true to our ‘in Europe for Europe’ strategy and strengthen collaboration with all sectors in the region.”

Zhou insisted that Huawei has been highly consistent on its European ambitions and stressed it’s something that enterprise customers appreciate. Moreover, the fact it’s had to muscle in on an already crowded market means it knows customers crave reliability and speed and can deliver on both

“This kind of consistency is different,” he told ITPro. “Because Huawei is not seeking short-term wins in the market. Our investment is looking to long-term strategy.”

“We always try to have a very quick response for our customers. My R&D team are not only in China, they’re also in Munich, in Switzerland. Some of my R&D team are sitting with the sales team, and the purpose is to try and listen into the requirements - even the complaints - from our customers and then make a response very quickly.”