Chapter 2185 Self-developed server

After discussing the core issues, we finally came to the purchase of equipment.

This is easier.

Zhou Buqi stated on the spot that he would purchase ZTE products as much as possible in the North American market. Not all equipment will be purchased from ZTE, but if conditions are right, ZTE's products will get priority.

This sentence was enough, and Mr. Shi was very satisfied. He also expressed his position generously, saying that the products sold to Ziweixing and Changyou were guaranteed to be the lowest price in the world.

Zhou Buqi reciprocated the favor again, saying that he still had certain network resources and influence in Silicon Valley. If possible, he would suggest to Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook and other companies that they also actively purchase ZTE products. equipment.

Mr. Shi said that we can promote in-depth cooperation between Ziweixing and ZTE. I heard that Ziweiyun’s biggest investment is the purchase of servers.

It just so happens that ZTE also has a server business.

Zhou Buqi declined.

He came to Pengcheng headquarters this time to pay attention to this matter.

In the early stages, Ziweiyun will purchase servers from outside. But with the development of Ziweiyun, Ziweiyun will develop its own servers.

Firstly, if you produce it yourself, the cost can be lower; secondly, in terms of server design, you can also tailor it for your own cloud computing business, making it more modular and standardized.

Pengcheng headquarters now has 1,100 employees, mainly focusing on three major businesses: mobile business, advertising business and cloud computing business.

Among them, there are more than 200 employees in the cloud computing business. As a branch, its main business areas are the technology development and technical services of computer software and hardware, electronic products, and digital products.

To put it bluntly, it develops hardware products, mainly developing its own servers and server processors.

Pengcheng has two major hardware giants, Huawei and ZTE, and has a talent advantage.

The threshold for the server industry is not high, unless it is a high-end server costing tens of thousands of dollars. Domestic technology in this area is not enough. Mid- to low-end servers can be produced independently in China.

Ziweiyun is not a professional server manufacturer and does not require high technology to produce high-end servers.

One of the reasons for the birth of cloud computing is that high-end servers are too expensive. We want to use cloud algorithms and cloud operating systems to connect some mid- to low-end servers to achieve the effects of high-end servers.

Therefore, it is not too difficult for Ziweiyun to do this business.

Just develop mid- to low-end servers.

The key is to standardize and modularize.

The specifications of the server must be tailored according to Ziweiyun's data center, and a server must be divided into 10 or 20 modules. During production, just produce the module. When using it, combine related modules to form a server.

This can greatly save usage costs.

In the past server applications, if one part of the server broke, the entire server would be scrapped, which was too wasteful.

Mid-to-low-end servers with slightly poor quality often suffer from partial damage.

The modular idea is that when a certain part of the server is broken, there is no need to throw away the entire server. You only need to find the damaged module, remove it and install a new module.

This new modular server idea can only be developed by cloud computing vendors.

ZTE has no chance to get involved.

Zhou Buqi came to Pengcheng this time just to visit, because they said that Ziweiyun's self-developed modular server has already produced samples, and the effect is very good!

Mr. Shi heard that Ziweiyun's server business had made new breakthroughs, and he was very interested. He came from the server industry and was considered an industry expert, so he wanted to find out.

Zhou Buqi didn't hide any secrets and invited him to visit openly.

Came to Ziweiyun Pengcheng R\u0026D Center.

Here, I met several big bosses from Ziweiyun, including Wang Jian, Zhou Feng, Ni Qiang, Li Feifei, Song Tao, Li Gaoming and other scientists.

This is a big deal.

Much attention.

However, none of these high-ranking scientists took the spotlight. After Boss Zhou appeared, they all actively gave up the right to explain to Lu Guangkun.

He is the senior vice president and chief technology officer of Ziwei Cloud Pengcheng Research Center, and the chief engineer of the self-developed server product internally codenamed "Squirrel".

He is 42 years old. His undergraduate degree was from Tsinghua University and his master's degree from Stanford University. After graduation, he joined IBM and became the vice president of the server division.

Two years ago, he was poached back from the United States by Shen Xiangyang and joined Ziweiyun's self-developed server project team.

Zhou Buqi first introduced ZTE's new president, Mr. Shi, and then asked about this new project. The first thing he focused on was the cost.

Lu Guangkun is a technical expert with a very straightforward personality. He said carelessly: "The cost of one unit is about 5,000 yuan. Among them, the biggest cost is to purchase various chips in key positions from abroad, which costs about 3,000 yuan. The other costs are 2,000 yuan. I refer to the material costs, not counting our R\u0026D expenses."

Zhou Buqi asked: "How does it compare with the service outside?"

Lu Guangkun glanced at Mr. Shi and said calmly: "The performance of a 5,000-yuan server should be about the same as ZTE's 20,000-yuan server."

"Ahem..."

Zhou Buqi almost vomited blood.

It really lives up to its reputation.

This man's emotional intelligence is too low. He has no scruples in speaking like this in front of Mr. Shi.

But then again, everyone has flaws. If he had high emotional intelligence, he might not be the senior vice president of the branch, but the president.

Lu Guangkun was very proud, "This is just the production cost, and the subsequent depreciation cost and maintenance cost will be lower."

"Yeah?"

Zhou Buqi was a little worried, fearing that Lu Guangkun would use ZTE as a reference for comparison.

ZTE has been in the server business for more than ten years and already has a large market.

If Ziweixing casually develops a product, it will be far ahead of ZTE. Isn't this a slap in Mr. Shi's face? You know, Mr. Shi first came out of the server business.

The results are great, but the more you worry about them, the more likely they will happen.

Lu Guangkun said: "In Pengcheng's cloud data center, some servers are purchased from ZTE. ZTE's servers have an average lifespan of 4-5 years, and they will basically be completely replaced by next year. We have self-developed servers. The modular device was installed, and after testing, it was found that it can be used efficiently for 6-7 years."

Seeing Mr. Shi's sallow complexion, Zhou Buqi wanted to find a crack in the ground to get in. He smiled and said, "ZTE's servers are also very good. They have supported the development of Ziwei Cloud in the past few years."

Lu Guangkun said: "It's not very good. Compared with other domestic servers, there is no advantage at all. Even all indicators are not as good as Inspur."

The smile on Zhou Buqi's face suddenly froze.

Fortunately, Mr. Shi reluctantly managed a smile and said, "Mr. Lu has some misunderstandings about ZTE's products. On behalf of ZTE, I invite you to visit our server technology group."

Lu Guangkun waved his hand, "No need, I'm not interested."

What was originally a good thing was completely thrown into the cold by this guy.

Zhou Feng quickly came over, tugged on Lu Guangkun's clothes, and said with a hint of warning, "Introduce your product well!"

Lu Guangkun was confused. Seeing the complicated and embarrassed expressions of the people around him, he later realized that he seemed to have said the wrong thing, so he quickly followed the big boss's ideas and returned to the topic of costs, " Amortizing the depreciation and maintenance of the service life equally, ZTE... ahem, if the server is purchased from outside, the annual usage expenditure is 5,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan; the annual usage of the self-developed server is 1,200 yuan. about."

Zhou Feng felt that he couldn't let this guy say everything, so he took the initiative to take control of the situation and said with a smile: "This is a big business breakthrough. At present, Ziwei Cloud has nearly 1 million servers deployed around the world. , the annual amortized cost is as high as US$1 billion. If all are replaced with our self-developed servers, the annual amortized cost can be reduced to US$300 million."

Hearing this, Mr. Shi was stunned, and all the awkward and embarrassing mood he had just felt was gone. He ran through it quickly in his head.

One million servers, even if each server costs 20,000 yuan, that is still... an investment of 20 billion yuan!

A total of 3 billion US dollars!

Just purchasing servers cost $3 billion? So how much investment did Ziweiyun have in the past few years? Including R\u0026D funds, cloud data center construction funds, labor costs, water and electricity costs, and preparation costs for related supporting facilities, the total investment is 10 billion US dollars, right?

Shocked!

This boss Xiao Zhou is so courageous!

No wonder Ziweiyun’s global share now ranks first in the world. Looking at their investment, who can afford it? Who can fight this?

Zhou Buqi didn't find it too strange, "Where are those to be deployed? How many are there?"

Zhou Feng said: "About 1 million units, mainly because... the construction speed in some places abroad is too slow, which seriously restricts the expansion speed of our cloud data center. I looked at the materials and construction plans given by Kurian before It has been scheduled until 2015. If all of these 1 million servers are deployed, it will be good if they can be deployed in the next three years."

Zhou Buqi nodded and said with a smile: "The construction speed is slow, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If it is slower, wouldn't it be possible to deploy our self-developed servers? If they are all purchased from outside, these 1 million servers to be deployed will Another big waste of money.”

Zhou Feng agreed, "I also think it should be slower. It's Moore's Law. The slower, the lower the cost. I think Ziweiyun's expansion speed in overseas markets... I mean the infrastructure expansion speed is already fast enough, but it's not necessary." If you are too anxious, just keep pace with the development of the cloud computing industry. If you expand too fast, it will be wasteful. You should talk to Kurian."

Zhou Buqi did not accept this suggestion.

He is determined to win the cloud computing industry.

Rather waste it than miss it.

How much can be wasted?

Once missed, it is a fatal loss.