The first automotive cloud, jointly built by SAIC Fin-Shine, eSurfing Cloud and China Telecom Henan Subsidiary, has been landed in Zhengzhou. Relying on technologies of eSurfing Cloud, the automotive cloud integrates cloud computing technologies and industry-specific SaaS and PaaS capabilities such as SAIC intelligent driving cloud, smart manufacturing cloud and trusted cloud. It provides network and data security operations and services for SAIC and more than 100 companies on the ecological chain. Efficiently linking the upstream and the downstream, the automotive cloud empowers typical scenarios in the automotive industry, greatly reduces the IT construction cost of the industry chain, and further promotes its digitalization to improve operational efficiency. The model of co-creation, co-construction and sharing also enables all parties involved to achieve a win-win situation.
SAIC Motor is a leading auto maker in China. While firmly stabilizing its operations, SAIC insists on innovation and change, actively seeks for transformation, and goes all out to promote high-quality development. SAIC Motor is dedicated to building the "new troika" of growth, i.e. self-branded vehicles, NEVs and overseas sales. In 2021, SAIC sold 2.857 million self-branded vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 10%, which accounted for half of the group's total sales. Sales of NEVs reached 733,000, increasing 128.9% year-on-year and ranking among the first echelon globally. In addition, SAIC Motor ranked first among Chinese auto companies in overseas sales for the sixth straight year, selling 697,000 vehicles, up 78.9% year-on-year. "For every three Chinese vehicles sold overseas, one is made by SAIC".
In recent years, the wave of technological innovation in the automotive industry has been rising, and technological strength directly determines the future market position of auto companies. The integration of the automotive industry and future technologies has become the direction that every auto company strives to improve. All of this requires the support of strong digital capabilities. SAIC has teamed up with eSurfing Cloud to create a new and professional cloud for the automotive industry under a new cooperation and development model, which not only improves the customer expansion capabilities and overall production capabilities, but also accelerates the digitalization process of the group. The group's innovation ability has also been greatly enhanced.
In SAIC Motor that has a deep IT accumulation, digital transformation has always been closely linked to its growth. In the face of fierce market competition, SAIC adheres to the development strategy of electrification, networking, intelligent connectivity, and sharing and actively expands the supply chain across all business, which has enabled the group to rank first in China in terms of sales volume for 16 consecutive years.
Launch of the automotive cloud for digital empowerment under co-creation and co-construction
To better serve the group's development strategy of "electrification, networking, intelligent connectivity, and sharing" and empower business innovations, SAIC Motor established Shanghai Fin-Shine Technology Co., Ltd., the industry's first cloud computing center wholly owned by an auto company. The construction of the automotive cloud was initiated afterwards.
Located in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, the SAIC Cloud Center was jointly invested by SAIC Motor, eSurfing Cloud and China Telecom Henan Subsidiary. Based on the principles of cooperation, co-construction, co-operation and mutual benefit, the brand new automotive cloud leverages on the advantages of SAIC in the automotive industry and the public cloud base capabilities of eSurfing Cloud. From the perspective of co-construction, SAIC invested in servers, eSurfing Cloud invested in cloud platform software and the SAIC cloud management platform, and China Telecom Henan Subsidiary invested in network security equipment. From the perspective of co-operation, the three parties have created China's first automotive cloud by capitalizing on SAIC's industrial advantages and eSurfing Cloud's O&M system. The co-creation of the three parties have built the first resource pool under the co-construction and co-operation model in China.
Secure + economical, fully guaranteeing the operation of the SAIC cloud platform
At present, eSurfing Cloud has helped to create the "Fin-Henan Smart Connection" innovation node and built the PaaS solution for SAIC Motor. Under the solution, eSurfing Cloud provisions a strong guarantee for service operations of SAIC cloud platform, and provides the visualized O&M and monitoring function to ensure the overall operation of the automotive cloud platform. eSurfing Cloud has also customized a dedicated cloud portal for SAIC that is embedded in the SAIC's official website, thereby realizing single-sign-on through the portal of SAIC.
The empowerment of eSurfing Cloud at the PaaS layer has improved SAIC's network access speed and enhanced the overall interconnectivity and intensification capabilities of the platform. At the same time, the security capabilities of SAIC cloud platform have also been greatly improved, so that it can provide customers with more reliable cloud services. The advantages of eSurfing Cloud in network equipment and bandwidth resources not only decrease the overall operating cost of SAIC, but also mitigate the daily operating pressure of O&M personnel, thereby reducing O&M overhead. In addition, the elastic expansion service provided by eSurfing Cloud can minimize the expenditures of enterprises on capacity expansion in subsequent upgrade and transformation.
The road to digital transformation is endless. The automotive cloud platform has become a milestone in SAIC’s digital transformation. In the future, capabilities of the automotive cloud platform will continue to be strengthened and extended. The platform will continue to serve SAIC's development strategy of "electrification, networking, intelligent connectivity, and sharing".