Huawei’s strategic partnership with SAP has received a boost from the launch of a new rack server that comes with HANA certification.

SAP (Walldorf, Germany) describes HANA as an in-memory computing platform that lets enterprise customers “dramatically accelerate analytics, business processes and predictive analysis”.

Speaking at a press conference during this week’s CeBIT show in Hannover, where the product was unveiled, SAP senior vice president Alex Atzberger said that Huawei (Shenzhen, China) was “the first Chinese hardware partner to be HANA-certified”.

Accusations by a U.S. computer security company that a secretive Chinese military unit is likely behind a series of hacking attacks are scientifically flawed and hence unreliable, China's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

The statement came after the White House said overnight that the Obama administration has repeatedly taken up its concerns about cyber-theft at the highest levels of the Chinese government, including with Chinese military officials.

Beijing:

Improved resource utilization, greater network control and faster response are just a few of the many promising benefits offered by Software Defined Networking. Just as how IP revolutionized networks, SDN proponents are calling this a game changing network architecture. But just exactly what can you expect from SDN? Is SDN right for your organization and how can you deploy SDN successfully to reap the rewards? What are the pitfalls and implementation risks and how can you avoid them?

Beijing, China

New breakthroughs in optical networking and communications is what this very important conference is all about. Learning how you can leverage them to improve your core, long haul, metro, transport, transmission, backhaul and access networks is why you should attend. Anyone involved in network planning, design, architecture, engineering and management knows just how challenging this can be. That is why it is so critically important to participate and gain the much needed insight and intelligence for making informed decisions. 

China's ZTE Corp, the world's fourth-biggest handset maker, plans to ship more high-end smartphones this year to help increase profit margins and revenue, a senior company executive said on Wednesday.

ZTE (Shenzhen, China) expects to ship more than 50 million smartphones in 2013, exceeding its earlier forecast, and sees smartphones making up 70 percent of overall consumer device sales this year, Lv Qianhao, head of ZTE's handset strategy, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a company event.

Atmel and Wasion Group are to collaborate on the development of smart-grid technology in response to rapid adoption in China and growing interest in other parts of the world.

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding they hope will drive the adoption of standards-compliant smart-metering solutions in global markets, based on power line communication (PLC) solutions developed by Atmel (San Jose, USA).

Huawei expects to generate revenues of RMB220.2 billion ($35.4 billion) for 2012, an increase of 8% on 2011, and forecasts sales growth of 10–12% this year.

Net profit at the company is forecast to rise 33% for 2012, to RMB15.4 billion.

The company remains on the defensive following a report by US authorities that argued both Huawei (Shenzhen, China) and smaller rival ZTE (Shenzhen, China) represent a security risk and should be avoided by US operators.

China’s CITIC Telecom has paid $1.16 billion to acquire a 79% stake in Macau’s largest telecoms operator from Cable & Wireless Communications (C&W) and Portugal Telecom.

State-backed CITIC (Hong Kong) already held a 20% stake in Companhia de Telecomunicacoes de Macau (CTM) but was eager to gain control of the growing business.

France Telecom hopes a new deal with Chinese web giant Baidu will spur the take-up of mobile internet services in Africa and the Middle East.

The two companies have announced a partnership through which France Telecom (Paris, France) will pre-install a Baidu (Beijing, China) browser on Android devices used by customers across the Africa and Middle East regions, where it serves about 80 million customers altogether.

China is considering a trial to allow private firms to offer mobile services by acquiring bandwidth from major carriers, in a step aimed at introducing competition to the country's state-owned telecom industry.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement it will solicit public opinion until February 6 on the plan, which would be a key step in liberalizing the world's largest mobile phone market, with more than a billion subscribers.