US government should give Huawei a break, says Forrester

Forrester analyst Charlie Dai argues Chinese vendor has become an 'important global innovator' and that the US government should be focusing on the benefits it can bring to it

CIOs of global companies should be putting Huawei on their shortlists - and the same goes for the US government, Forrester analyst Charlie Dai has argued in a blog post this week.

Reports of the the US Department of Commerce's request that Huawei executives of its Plano, TX branch release information about sales made to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria came about last week.

Dai, noting the China-based company's historically "difficult" efforts at globalisation, argued that the US government should be focusing more on the benefits the telecom vendor could bring to it.

"Huawei has grown from a maker of low-end carrier equipment to become an important global innovator," he wrote. "CIOs of global organisations should put Huawei on their shortlists as a partner that has business technology solutions that can help them accelerate digital transformation in the age of the customer - and the same goes for the US government."

According to Dai, the vendor is on its way to being an important digital transformation driver for telcos and enterprises.

The analyst attributed this to the vendor's "holistic" digital transformation strategies. He pointed to a focus on partner enablement, cloud enablement and open source, as well as partnerships with companies like public cloud Americas player Telefónica and Germany's T-Systems on the Open Telekom Cloud.

In addition, Huawei is becoming a more competitive player in cloud and big data, Dai argued.

"Huawei is expanding its geographic coverage in the public cloud market and the technical depth of private cloud solutions, such as FusionSphere on the infrastructure-as-a-service layer and FusionStage on the platform-as-a-service layer," he explained. "The company is also achieving customer success in the big data arena using its FusionInsight product, including leading telco and banking customers in China market."

Dai added that Huawei has potential where the Internet of Things is concerned.

The analyst called on more trust from the US and China.

"National security is important, but using 'national security' as an excuse for allowing unfair competition will only harm customers," Dai said.