Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s top telecoms provider, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the world’s No. 2 contract laptop computer maker, Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), to provide cloud computing services for local medium-sized enterprises by the end of the year.
That will be the first step in Chunghwa Telecom’s plan to invest NT$40 billion (US$1.24 billion) in the next five years to provide Internet-based computing services on its network.
“It is becoming a trend to provide technology services ... Cooperating with Quanta will help increase usage of cloud computing services,” Chunghwa Telecom chairman Lu Shyue-ching (呂學錦) told a press briefing.
Chunghwa Telecom will provide a wide range of cloud computing applications, including Internet-based software that will preclude the need of installing and running applications on home or office computers, thereby simplifying maintenance and support.
Targeting the nation’s manufacturing sector in the initial stage, the telecoms carrier said it expected to see major progress next year, company president Chang Shaio-tung (張曉東) told reporters on the sidelines of the press conference.
Quanta will provide hardware, including servers and storage, and the software for telecoms companies to provide cloud computing services. Quanta said last month that it aimed to ship 1 million cloud computing servers this year.
“Quanta has been talking about cloud computing [business] since last year ... Our next dream is not to become a notebook computer leader, but a leading company in cloud computing,” Quanta chairman Barry Lam (林百里) said.
Quanta and Chunghwa Telecom will jointly form a special task force to facilitate cooperation. The companies also plan to provide joint solutions for cloud computing services overseas.
Currently, Chunghwa Telecom has 100 engineers in cloud computing development and Quanta has 600 engineers. Shares of Chunghwa Telecom rose 0.62 percent to NT$65.4 yesterday, while the stock price of Quanta jumped 3.56 percent to NT$58.2.
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