In the recently released "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy", "East Counting West" is included in the plan.
(2) Promote the integration and development of cloud-network collaboration and computing-network integration. Accelerate the construction of a national integrated big data center system with computing power, algorithms, data, and application resources. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing Region Twin Cities Economic Circle, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia and other regions to lay out the national integrated computing power network national hub nodes, the construction of data center clusters, combined with the development needs of applications, industries and other development needs to optimize the layout of data center construction. Accelerate the implementation of the "East Counting West Computing" project, promote the coordinated development of cloud and network, improve the cross-network and cross-regional data interaction capabilities of data centers, strengthen edge computing capabilities for specific scenarios, and strengthen computing power coordination and intelligent scheduling. In accordance with the principles of green, low carbon, intensive and efficient, we will continue to promote the construction of green digital centers, accelerate the energy-saving transformation of data centers, and continuously improve the level of renewable energy utilization in data centers。 Promote the orderly development of intelligent computing centers, create a new intelligent infrastructure that integrates intelligent computing power, general algorithms and development platforms, and provide systematic artificial intelligence services for key emerging areas such as government services, smart cities, intelligent manufacturing, automatic driving, and language intelligence.
In the interpretation of the National Development and Reform Commission, the "east number to the west" is juxtaposed with the "south-to-north water diversion", "west-to-east power transmission", and "west-to-east gas transmission".
Specifically, it will build eight major hubs in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Chengdu-Chongqing Region Twin Cities Economic Circle, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Ningxia.
and ten clusters:
Division:
The four nodes of Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Ningxia should build a non-real-time computing power guarantee base for the whole country. Positioned to continuously improve the quality and utilization efficiency of computing power services, give full play to its resource advantages, consolidate the basic guarantee such as the network, and actively undertake non-real-time computing demand such as background processing, offline analysis, storage and backup nationwide.
The four nodes of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Chengdu-Chongqing should serve the implementation needs of major regional development strategies. It is positioned to further coordinate the layout of data centers within and around the city, realize the coordination and sustainability of large-scale computing power deployment with land, energy, water, electricity and other resources, optimize the data center supply structure, and expand the space for computing power growth.
The unified planning of the state reflects the importance attached by the state. In fact, "counting the east and counting the west" is not a new word, in the layout of the three major telecom operators and several major Internet companies, as well as other cloud service providers, they all take into account the resources of the west and the needs of the east. The national planning is actually a comprehensive embodiment of the layout of each company.
For example, the "2+4+31+X" structure of China Telecom's cloud service is highly consistent with the location and service positioning of the national hub nodes of the national integrated big data center, "2" is in the Inner Mongolia hub and Guizhou hub of the western hub, and "4" is completely consistent with the layout of the four national hub nodes in the east (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Chengdu-Chongqing). In terms of content, "2" is positioned as a base for national data storage backup and offline analysis, and "4" is positioned as a real-time business carrier with high real-time requirements such as video playback and e-commerce visited by high-density populations in hot spots, which is also consistent with the country's layout.
Inner Mongolia and Linger, Guizhou Gui'an, Gansu Qingyang, Ningxia Zhongwei, etc. have also repeatedly appeared in the data center layout of many companies. It can be said that the superior natural environment of these four regions in the west (low temperature and cheap electricity) has become one of the few winning points. Of course, these four locations are included in the national plan, and will have a resource adsorption effect in the next few years, and the attractiveness of other cities in the west for cloud services will weaken, and the gap will be further widened.
In recent years, the three major telecom operators have attached great importance to the construction and promotion of cloud services and data centers, and cloud services have become one of the important growth points of the revenue of telecom operators in recent years. Computing power has repeatedly appeared in the speeches of operator executives.
China Mobile: At the main forum of the 2021 China Mobile Global Partner Conference in November last year, Yang Jie, chairman of China Mobile, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Numbers is the Future of Intelligent Computing of Everything" (see "Computing Power Connects Networks and Applications, China Mobile Wants to Break the Theory of Incremental Non-Revenue and 5G Uselessness").
China Telecom: Shortly thereafter, at China Telecom's "2021 International Digital Technology Exhibition and Tianyi Intelligent Ecology Expo", Ke Ruiwen, chairman of China Telecom, said, "Cloud network integration focuses on the integration of network, computing power and storage of three major resources, with greater connotation and scope. In the future, the integration of cloud and network should make the cloud and the network chemically react, and realize the three unifications of the technical base, operation management and supply mode, so as to form a truly digital platform and realize the servitization of various capabilities. ”
China Unicom: At the 2021 China Unicom Partner Conference in December, China Unicom announced that it will comprehensively upgrade its cloud business and launch the "China Unicom Cloud", aiming to improve the service level of "connectivity + perception + computing + intelligence" computing network and create the "first computing power engine" for the digital economy. Liu Liehong, the new chairman of China Unicom, pointed out that the upgraded Unicom cloud will have the characteristics of "cloud-network integration, security and credibility, exclusive customization, and multi-cloud collaboration".
With the advancement of the "East Counting West Calculation" project, the three major telecom operators will increase their investment in the eight major hubs, and the proportion of the eight hub data centers in the whole company will continue to increase. That is to say, in the next few years, the mainland's demand for data storage and computing will continue to grow at a high speed, and operators will arrange more demand into the eight major hubs according to the characteristics of the business. Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent will take similar actions.
However, if the three major telecom operators want to expand their share in related services by means of "Western Digital East Computing", the focus is not on the eight major hubs, but on the network pipelines that connect the eight hubs at high speed and the "edge computing" capabilities configured according to the real-time needs of users, and the nodes and peripheral services that operators already have covering the whole country will constitute the comprehensive service advantages of "cloud (hub) + pipeline + edge". The original fixed network foundation of China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as China Mobile's strong financial strength and flexible layout, will play a more active role in the development of the mainland's digital economy in the next few years.