Shanghai Unicom is a major communications service provider in Shanghai. Its main businesses cover GSM and WCDMA mobile communication services, fixed-line communication services (including fixed-line telephony and broadband services), domestic and international toll call services (access number 193), ratified local call services, data communication services, Internet services (access number 16500), IP telephony services (access numbers 17910 and 17911), satellite communication services, value-added telecom services, and other telecom services related to the main businesses.
Challenges
As a major communications and Internet service provider in Shanghai, Shanghai Unicom has been purchasing a large number of IT equipment each year to support its business and Internet Data Center (IDC) operations. The company was confronted with the following challenges in building and using IT systems:- Slow business response: Shanghai Unicom built conventional IT systems that use fixed IT infrastructures. New IT equipment was purchased to address emerging business needs. The slow business response could not meet the rapidly changing market requirements.
- High construction cost: High reliability is critical to telecom business. Telecom carriers usually build a core support system in 1 1 backup mode to ensure system availability. As telecom traffic soars during peak hours — such as over the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Day — IT infrastructures need to meet the increased requirements. The IT infrastructures had a low resource utilization on average while the construction cost remained high.
- Inefficient and costly O&M: Different personnel would construct and maintain the various IT systems. The maintenance was slow and costly and affected customer satisfaction. For instance, PC maintenance in a customer service center of Shanghai Unicom required maintenance personnel to visit the office each time a PC was faulty. If the problem could not be solved on site, the faulty PC had to be send to the maintenance center. The center would then take one to two days, on average, which affected the business operation and customer satisfaction.
Solution
After an elaborate study, Shanghai Unicom decided to use cloud computing technology because of its significant effect in improving IDC service offerings, reducing the investment in internal IT platforms, and lowering O&M cost. Shanghai Unicom kicked off the cloud computing platform project in December 2009 and established an IDC and cloud computing center (tier-2 body) designed to sell and operate cloud products to enhance the company’s competitiveness and improve its business processes.After extensive research, discussions, and tests with mainstream vendors, Shanghai Unicom decided to use Huawei’s cloud computing products and services to build its new computing data center. Huawei would also provide services for internal and external users and explore an efficient cloud computing service offering model to help Shanghai Unicom create a competitive advantage in the public cloud market.
- Huawei hardware and cloud computing software are used from end to end to build an efficient, flexible, and unified cloud data center serving both internal and external users.
- Virtual desktops, cloud storage, and cloud host services are promoted among internal users in an effort to move the company’s office and IT services to the cloud data center in stages.
- Virtual work style, virtual desktops, cloud storage, and cloud hosting services are promoted among external users to develop the external user market.
Benefits
Since 2010, Shanghai Unicom has established a data center serving the intranet and extranet users to provide cloud computing products including the desktop cloud, cloud host, and cloud storage. The company has achieved significant results in persuading internal and external customers to use these services.- Improved resource utilization and lowered construction cost: Resource virtualization, elastic load balancing, high availability, and other cloud computing technologies change the conventional mode in which IT infrastructure deployment is geared to satisfy peak traffic. In the cloud mode, resources are elastically obtained from a resource pool to complete service needs during peak hours, and the resources will be reclaimed and re-allocated for other services during non-peak hours. The new mode improves the resource utilization and reduces the IT construction cost because all resources can be reused to the maximum level.
- Lowered O&M cost: With unified resource management and O&M enabled by cloud computing, maintenance is completed remotely. Resources are reused, the maintenance labor and time are reduced, and maintenance efficiency is improved. For example, in a customer service center of Shanghai Unicom, the maintenance time is shortened from days to minutes and maintenance efficiency increased by several hundred times.
- Fast service response: The cloud computing architecture substitutes the conventional IT architecture to unbind services from the infrastructure. Cloud computing promises elastic expansion and fast deployment. A new service can be provisioned only by selecting required resources from a resource pool instead of purchasing new IT devices. The service deployment period is shortened from three months to three days.
