Every reporter: Xu Shuai Every editor: Yang Xia
With the vigorous development of China's information and innovation industry, the trend of independent innovation and localization substitution is also quietly emerging. As a key node in the information and innovation industry in 2027, it indicates that a more complete and powerful information standard system is about to be formed. In this context, the four pillars of the domestic information and innovation industry - basic hardware, basic software, application software and information security, are gradually building a new ecosystem.
On June 28th, ArcherMind Technology 2024 Information Innovation Quality Productivity Seminar - Chengdu Station was held, at which the reporter of "National Business Daily" interviewed Zhang Xiang, Vice President of ArcherMind Technology, and Zhang Han, General Manager of Longmai Technology. They all mentioned that this year will be a year for the domestic information and innovation industry, but the lack of a huge user base is constituting a major pain point in the domestic information and innovation industry. In an interview, they believed that the localization of the information and innovation system should not only be ecological adaptation, link multiple resources, but also achieve complementary needs, such as meeting basic needs such as information security. The core competitiveness of the future is the strength of the information and innovation enterprise in software, hardware and the construction of the ecosystem.
Slow start-up and jamming used to be the factors restricting development
On June 28, ArcherMind 2024 Information Innovation Quality Productivity Seminar - Chengdu Station was held, which involved the discussion on the development of China's information and innovation industry.
Not long ago, the Cyberspace Administration of China and other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for the Construction of Informatization Standards (2024-2027)", mentioning that in 2027, the coordination mechanism of informatization standards will be more sound, the layout of the informatization standard system will be more perfect, and the basic capabilities such as standard development and service will be further consolidated. The role of informatization standards in leading technological innovation and driving economic and social development has been fully exerted, and the contribution and influence of international standards have been significantly improved. This document once again mentions the key node of information innovation in 2027. As early as the end of September 2022, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) issued an important document to comprehensively guide and require state-owned enterprises to implement the localization transformation of information innovation in the information system, and by 2027, 100% of central and state-owned enterprises will complete the replacement of information innovation. This expands the boundaries of information innovation from the small party and government information innovation to the "2+8+N" big information innovation, that is, from the party and government organs to finance, telecommunications, electric power, petroleum, transportation, aerospace, education, medical care, automobile logistics, tobacco, electronics, construction and other industries. According to iiMedia Consulting data, the scale of China's information and innovation industry will reach 2,096.19 billion yuan in 2023 and is expected to reach 3,701.13 billion yuan in 2027.
In the middle of the meeting, Zhang Xiang, vice president of ArcherMind Technology, and Zhang Han, general manager of Longmai Technology, both mentioned in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that it is not enough three years before 2027, and it is a trend for policies to promote the explosive demand of the information and innovation industry. This trend includes the localization of external technologies through self-developed software and hardware technologies, and the construction of a cloud platform ecology that breaks information silos and promotes resource sharing, so as to achieve a comprehensive upgrade of information systems. It also covers four major areas of basic hardware, including CPUs, servers, storage devices, network switches, routers, and various cloud services. The second is basic software, which covers key technologies such as operating systems, databases, and middleware; Application software, including office automation (OA), enterprise resource planning (ERP), office software and government applications; Finally, there is the field of information security, including border security products and terminal security products, to ensure the security and stability of the entire information system.
Zhang Xiang Image source: Photo by reporter Xu Shuai
CPU chips and operating systems are the most basic technologies, and it happens that the difficulty is also here - the lack of technology development leads to slow boot and lag. "I know a friend, I saw him say that your computer seems to be a little old, why don't you change it? He said, hey, you don't know, this Xinchuang is too difficult to use, and it takes half a day to turn on the machine. Zhang Xiang, vice president of ArcherMind Technology, said that in the past, Xinchuang computers had the characteristics of slow startup, but now they are optimized in China to achieve 8 seconds of boot, especially the speed of opening large files is faster.
Zhang Xiang said that problems such as slow start-up and easy crash have affected the expansion of traditional information and innovation computer users, which has also led to the delay in the establishment of the domestic information and innovation industry ecosystem.
Zhang Han used a more detailed set of data to compare and describe the difference between the domestic information and innovation industry ecosystem and the mature foreign system.
"You have a Windows operating system, and all kinds of applications and peripherals are used very freely, what is behind this? Behind it is Microsoft, a company that has spent decades adapting 37 million applications to the native ecosystem, plus 15 million peripheral hardware, such as copiers, printers, etc. However, our information and innovation industry only started in 2019, and the number of native adaptations released to the outside world so far is only 5 million+. Zhang Han said that there is a gap between the two geometric multiples, because many adaptation software comes from abroad, it has no incentive to do native adaptation for the domestic information and innovation industry.
The total number of PC points of "2+8+N" Daxinchuang is about 100 million, and so far China has made about 10 million points, "the biggest problem of these 10 million points now is that they cannot be used."
Optimistic about the information and innovation companies with stronger software capabilities
At present, domestic information and innovation manufacturers are promoting the formation of the entire ecosystem, which naturally requires a large enough user base.
Zhang Xiang said that the lack of a huge user base is a major pain point in the domestic information and innovation industry, with a small number of users and few adaptation software, making it difficult for enterprises to develop. If the more users and the enterprise increases R&D investment, the system will become easier and easier to use, which is originally complementary to each other. "At present, the customer groups of the domestic information and innovation industry are mainly the party and government, and the underlying architecture and anti-virus software of our database are basically localized, including the localization of some industrial software." Zhang Xiang said that the localization of the whole system should not only be ecological adaptation, link multiple resources, but also realize complementary needs, such as meeting basic needs such as information security.
The reporter of "Daily Economic News" operated the domestic Xinchuang computer on the spot, and found that the application response speed is indeed fast, and PS drawing software, CAD industrial design software, etc. can also be used very well. This Xinchuang computer is equipped with a set of anti-virus software and firewalls, and the localization rate of the main software and hardware is very high. For field workers, the computer has more than 30 built-in system native applications and covers nearly 100,000 commonly used applications. From the actual operation point of view, this system is relatively close to the operating system of Windows. Zhang Xiang said that this is mainly in line with user habits, so that they can adapt to the new set of information and innovation system.
Zhang Xiang and Zhang Han both judged that this year will be a year of development and outbreak of the domestic information and innovation industry, "I look at each region, a city may have to change one or two thousand units this year, and all of them will be replaced in 2027, then we think that the number of this market is still very large, there may be hundreds of billions, for example, we aim to do 10%, which is already very large."
However, this piece of "cake" seems to be very large, and it is also a battleground for soldiers. Huawei, Lenovo, Inspur, Asus and other brands are all making efforts in the information innovation market, some are doing software ecology, and some are making hardware components such as chips. Even traditional communication providers such as China Mobile have launched new products such as Xinchuang cloud computer. Overall, the current information and innovation industry is still in a period of large capital expenditure, "the vast majority may be losing money, which is unavoidable at this stage...... I think that in the end, this market is still strong and strong, and there are about ten companies that can survive in the end."
Zhang Han also agrees with this point of view: "First of all, no matter what business track, it must be a process of convergence from the beginning to the end, and the ones that will really survive in the future must be the most outstanding." ”
Zhang Han Image source: Photo by reporter Xu Shuai
Of course, each manufacturer's move is different, Zhang Han believes that the all-round adaptation of hardware to software can best form the core competitiveness of information and innovation enterprises.
Zhang Han mentioned that the development of domestic computers has experienced the switch from hardware stacking to software-defined, and manufacturers who only focus on hardware in the process can easily lose market competitiveness. In fact, all industries are hit by cross-border dimensionality reduction in the end, for example, e-commerce defeats traditional entities, and now e-commerce is hit by Douyin and live streaming with goods." Zhang Han said that the domestic information and innovation industry can not avoid this process, the traditional Chinese IT hardware market may not be subverted by the hardware manufacturers themselves, but have the ability to support and optimize the hardware manufacturers, "so I personally prefer companies with strong software capabilities."
National Business Daily