After entering the digital age, the words digital economy and digital transformation appear more and more frequently. As the integration and development of the digital economy and the real economy is gradually deepening, cloud computing and cloud applications, one of the core engines of digital transformation, has become more fragrant.
Interestingly, operators are now becoming an important tier in the cloud computing market. The development of Tianyi Cloud, Mobile Cloud and Unicom Cloud of the three major operators is also becoming faster and faster.
According to public data, in 2022, the public cloud business growth rate of the three major operators in the domestic cloud computing market will exceed 100%, far exceeding the industry average. The volume of Tianyi cloud and mobile cloud is rapidly approaching the head cloud manufacturers. In addition, according to the 2022 financial report data of the three major operators, the cloud business revenue of telecom, mobile, and Unicom in 2022 will be 107.5%, 108.1%, and 121%, respectively. Such a growth rate of more than 100% is really rare.
According to the consistent competitive tone of the three major operators, "volume" has always been a habitual action. So, after cloud computing and cloud applications become more and more fragrant, how will the three clouds of operators be rolled?
According to the current market pattern, there are really many big coffee in the cloud computing market now. However, on the whole, the pattern of "one super and many strong" is still maintained. However, the communication operator camp represented by Tianyi Cloud and Mobile Cloud has the strongest growth momentum.
At present, Telecom's Tianyi Cloud is regarded as the "number one" in the operator's cloud. It has not only become the largest hybrid cloud in China, but also maintained the first market share of dedicated cloud. It also ranks third in the public cloud IaaS and public cloud IaaS + PaaS markets.
Although Tianyi Cloud currently maintains a leading position in the operator cloud, the catching up speed of the mobile cloud is also quite fast.
According to the financial report data of mobile, mobile cloud revenue reached 50.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108.1%, of which industry cloud revenue reached 41.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 114.4%; Mobile cloud disk revenue reached RMB5.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 59.5%. The public cloud revenue share of mobile cloud ranks among the top six in the domestic industry, with dedicated cloud ranking third and edge cloud ranking first. In terms of personal and home markets, mobile cloud disk has nearly 170 million monthly active users, ranking second in the industry. The comprehensive strength of mobile cloud has entered the first camp of the domestic industry.
Although Unicom Cloud is not as good as telecom and mobile, it has also achieved remarkable results. Unicom Cloud ranked first in the comprehensive score of the national government cloud platform in 2022.
In this way, the focus battle of operators' three clouds will probably be launched between the sky wing cloud and the mobile cloud in the future.
Since we want to roll each other, we have to compete for something. What can Tianyi Cloud, Mobile Cloud and Unicom Cloud compete against?
At present, the domestic cloud computing market is actually divided into two different development directions. One is the development direction of technology companies and Internet companies around applications and ecology. The other is the development direction of connection, networking + service explored by operators with networks in hand.
The three major operators with networks in hand have powerful network resources such as optical network broadband, mobile Internet, and data centers. At the same time, there is also an integrated cloud-network operation system. Therefore, it has special advantages in connection and networking.
From this point of view, competing network capabilities and the number of data centers is probably an important area in the three cloud interrolls of operators.
It is said that Telecom currently has more than 700 data centers and more than 3,000 edge DCs, with 513,000 IDC racks and a rack utilization rate of more than 70%, and IDC resources are the largest and most widely distributed in China. Telecom plans to invest 9.5 billion yuan in IDC and 19.5 billion yuan in cloud resource pools this year.
China Mobile has built a new information infrastructure focusing on 5G, computing power network, and capability middle platform, and innovatively built a new information service system of "connection + computing power + capability". The cumulative production of cloud servers exceeded 710,000, with a net increase of more than 230,000 units, and the computing power scale reached 8.0EFLOPS, a net increase of 2.8EFLOPS. Lead the computing power network from concept prototype to industrial practice. Computing network infrastructure remains ahead of the curve. The number of available IDC racks reached 467,000, a net increase of 60,000. Optimize the "4+N+31+X" intensive echelon layout. This year, the mobile plan will also plan to add more than 240,000 cloud servers and 40,000 IDC racks available to the outside world. Invest 45.2 billion yuan in the field of computing power network, an increase of 11.7 billion yuan over 2022.
China Unicom is also improving the "5+4+31+X" multi-level architecture to strengthen the advantages of leading backbone network latency and multi-cloud connectivity. The scale of IDC racks reached 363,000, with 1,000 data centers covering 23 provinces and 336 internal and external cloud pool connections. In addition, China Unicom plans to invest no less than 14.61 billion yuan in computing networks this year, accounting for more than 19%, and is expected to increase by more than 20% year-on-year.
In this way, the competition between the three major operators in network capabilities, data center numbers and computing power is also very competible.
However, it has to be mentioned that compared with network capabilities, the number of data centers and computing power network construction, the three major operators are actually inferior to technology companies and Internet companies in cloud computing technology, software development, application capabilities and technical talents.
However, if you want to achieve better development in the field of cloud computing, you must not only have the "hardware" foundation of network capabilities, the number of data centers and computing power networks, but also have core competitiveness in the "software" capabilities of technology and application research and development.
In this way, the future competition in technology and application research and development is probably another important area in the three clouds of operators.
However, technology research and development can be regarded as a full-fledged "gold-swallowing beast". Although operators are "not bad money", compared with the annual investment of technology companies and Internet companies in technology, operators still invest a lot less in technology research and development in cloud computing.
In addition, due to restrictions and salary system standards, it is difficult for operators to attract technical talents with the same salary as technology companies and Internet companies.
This problem is nothing to do between the three clouds of operators. However, there will still be some impact in the cloud competition with technology companies and Internet companies.
The competition for cloud computing is ultimately an ecological war. If operators want to go further in the market competition, they also need to make full use of the advantages of resource layout, strengthen investment in technology, talents, funds, etc., and create products and services with core competitiveness and advantages in order to have the last laugh.