Huawei opens 'market-oriented' OpenLab in India

To accelerate enterprise digitisation in India and help the industry test and develop innovative solutions, Chinese technology giant Huawei on Friday launched its first "market-oriented" OpenLab in the country which is the company's 12th such facility globally.

"Over the next three years, Huawei will be investing $23 million jointly in its OpenLabs in India and Thailand. These facilities will provide platforms for customers and partners to innovate together using Huawei's ICT capabilities and India's local talent," said Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India.

Compared to traditional technology-centric labs, Huawei said its OpenLab Delhi will be market-oriented, and aims to develop hardware and software services as well as solutions based on customers' requirements during their digital transformation.

Built as a part of Huawei's Global OpenLab Programme, the OpenLab Delhi will provide Huawei ecosystem partners and customers a platform to freely test and customise their solutions.

The OpenLab Delhi will focus on driving smart city innovations in areas as diverse as IoT (Internet of Things), smart building, smart campus (perimeter alarm, smart parking, energy efficiency management and visitor management), smart transportation, intelligent video surveillance solutions and convergent command and control solutions, Huawei said.

"In the future we will extend the range of solutions to digital banking, smart energies, and more and more areas," Derek Hao, President, Enterprise Business Group, Huawei India, told IANS.

"With this OpenLab, Huawei looks to serve India as well as global partners and customers leveraging its global expertise, talents, technologies, and customer business successes," he said, adding that the facility will serve as a co-innovation platform for Huawei, its customers and partners for incubating industry solutions to address the challenges of digital transformation.

The OpenLab Delhi, located at the company's Gurugram headquarters, will also be providing training and certification to Indian ICT talent in the latest technologies.

It will offer ICT training to nearly 400 personnel per year and provide "ICT Career Certification" to 250 engineers per year; and "Proof of Concept Training" to nearly 100 engineers annually, Huawei said.

In the first three quarters, Huawei achieved 60 per cent growth in the enterprise business in India, compared to the growth achieved in the three quarters of last year, Hao said, adding the the Huawei Enterprise Business Group is now serving top manufacturing, retail and large enterprise customers in India.

--IANS

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