Recognizing that the telecom sector will plateau over the next decade, ZTE Corporation has expanded its presence in the IT space by setting up a cloud computing unit, the company's third major division after wireless and wireline.
“The industry won't be able to support the 25% annual growth we've seen over the past 25 years, so we need a new area to drive growth. We see cloud computing and IT as a strategic growth area for the company, with lots of opportunity for innovation,” said ZTE VP for cloud computing and IT operations Wei Wang.
The company is so confident of the potential of its newly formed division that it expects to generate more than $2 billion in revenues this year from cloud-related offerings for the enterprise market, which include datacom products, enterprise networks and servers, and storage products for government networks.
While still a fledgling undertaking for ZTE, relative to wireless and wireline, the cloud computing division is seen accounting for a third of the company's total revenues in the coming years, according to ZTE president Shi Lirong.
The company has set up a Global Cloud Computing Center in Nanjing, which employs more than 3,000 people, to help push its IT and cloud strategy.