Huawei points partners towards campus networks opportunity

Huawei is expecting the impact of 5G and the demands of digital transformation to help drive spending on campus networks and create opportunities for its channel partners.

The firm recently launched its CloudEngine S-series of campus networking products, with the products being designed to support Wi-Fi 6 and underpin the increasing move by customers towards a wireless environment.

"Campus networks, which serve as the foundation for constructing a future-proof digital platform for enterprises, are shifting their focus from data connectivity to service connectivity. As such, building intent-driven campus networks are at the top of our agenda," said Zhao Zhipeng, President of the Campus Network Domain, Huawei's Data Communication Product Line.

"In the Wi-Fi 6 era, campus networks should take on new characteristics, including ultra-large capacity, 10-millisecond ultra-low latency, zero-configuration service rollout, and self-healing from network faults. Campus networks should also use an open architecture, facilitating smooth evolution from traditional campus networks to networks that are intelligent and simplified," he added.

From a channel point of view the launch comes at a moment when the customer landscape is changing and the technology currently used is coming under pressure.

"In the past campus networking was not mainly about wireless but now many are moving to wifi," said Steven Zhao, Campus Network Domain President, Huawei Data Communication Product Line "5G is coming and there will be 5G and wifi-6 high quality campus networks."

Those changes in the enterprise networking landscape will create opportunities for the vendor's channel community and Zhao said that its resellers had an established customer base in both private and public sectors in the UK.

"The [latest products] will really help our channel partners, particularly those delivering managed services, and help them with opex and efficiency," said Zhao.

"I believe there is a great opportunity for digital transformation because so many sectors are transforming and there is a great opportunity for digital transformation," he added.

Zhao said that many customers were currently assessing their plans and would be looking to upgrade networking infrastructure to make sure it could meet the demands of staff and act as the backbone for their future digital ambitions.

The vendor faces a competitive market with some household names also vying for channel and customer attention but Zhao said it was clear about its ambition to offer a concrete alternative: "If we are not the best then we  will be doing everything to become the best".

Huawei has been taking steps to arm its channel partners with more intelligence, through its insights offering and its joint verification labs to devise a solution that resellers can take to market.