Huawei.com review

First impression

Huawei, a technology giant based in Shenzhen, China, was founded way back in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a retired Chinese military engineer. Over the years they have grown to become a household name globally, and a wide range of services which include Elastic Cloud Servers (ECS), Huawei Cloud Flexus (almost like Shared Hosting, but more scalable and flexible), Object Storage Services (OBS), Dedicated Hosts (DeH, similar to dedicated servers) to name just a few.

Trial Period

They offer an incredible 12-month free trial for their Object Storage Service (OBS), Relational Database Services (RDS), Cloud Container Engines (CCE), and a 30-day trial for their Elastic Cloud Servers (ECS). With regards to refunds – when users unsubscribe, they get charged “handling fees” for the period of service usage.

Billing Cycle

Huawei Cloud offers elastic billing modes for products. For Elastic Cloud Servers (ECS), Object Storage Services (OBS), Relational Database Services (RDS), and Cloud Container Engines (CCE), you can choose pay-per-use or yearly/monthly billing mode. When you apply pay-per-use mode, you pay based on your actual consumption, which is appropriate if your workload is irregular. Otherwise, the yearly or monthly billing mode allows you to pre-reserve resources for some time in advance, normally with a discount, which is more cost-effective for long-term and stable usage.

They now accept all the major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, as well as bank transfers, as payment.

Control Panel 

Huawei Cloud offers a limited choice when it comes to control panels for server management. For instance, Plesk is available through their marketplace, providing a centralized dashboard where you can build and manage multiple sites, run updates, monitor performance, and onboard new prospects. Additionally, aaPanel is offered, which is an open-source web hosting control panel designed to simplify server management for users of all skill levels. Although this panel is free, it still provides a comprehensive set of tools and features that streamline the process of managing websites, databases, and applications.

Limits

Huawei Cloud Flexus is a cloud version of shared hosting, designed for lightweight workloads but with enhanced resource isolation and scalability. It comes in four flavors to meet varied needs. The entry-level Flexus L plan offers 2 to 4 vCPUs and 2 to 8GB of RAM, perfect for small businesses. This is followed by the Flexus X plan, which goes up to 16 vCPUs and 64GB of RAM for heavy workloads. Huawei also offers Flexus RDS, a lightweight database service with 2U4G primary/standby instances and 120GB storage, perfect for live streaming and high-availability environments. Finally, the Flexus CCI plan is an affordable, ready-to-use container service offering 2 vCPUs and 4GB of RAM, perfect for developers who want to deploy applications quickly.

On the other hand, Huawei’s Elastic Cloud Server (ECS) services offer a wide range of computing needs with their exact configurations and ideal use cases. The most budget-friendly is the General Computing-Basic T6 ECS with 1 to 16 vCPUs (2.2 GHz/3.0 GHz) and 3 Gbit/s bandwidth and is best suited for low-workload usage like web hosting or development and testing.

The next level is the General Computing S7n ECS available in 1 to 8 vCPUs (2.6 GHz/3.4 GHz) with 3 Gbit/s bandwidth. For heavier use, the General Computing Plus S7 ECS is cost-performance balanced and is best for general-purpose workloads. The Compute-Intensive C7 ECS is best for high-performance use, 2 to 96 vCPUs (2.6 GHz/3.4 GHz) and 40 Gbit/s network bandwidth, ideal for gaming or compute-intensive use. Lastly, the Memory-Intensive C7 ECS is ideal for memory-intensive workloads like large databases and real-time analytics, 2 to 232 vCPUs (2.45 GHz/3.5 GHz) and on a blazing 100 Gbit/s network. Every plan is meant for specific performance requirements, so users can pick the configuration best for their requirements.

Website Builder

Huawei Cloud caters to the general needs of website creation and development in two methods. They cater to the needs of those who require quick deployment without technical assistance with an easy to use drag-and-drop facility. This allows users to develop a professional web presence within seconds without any coding knowledge.

More advanced projects take advantage of its elastic cloud hosting with high-performance infrastructure and automated resource provisioning, scalability, and integrated protection. All the back-end operations will be performed by the platform with the front-end operations being focused on by the development team. Note that this option requires coding skills because it includes no visual builder.

Security

Huawei has some robust security measures in place on its cloud infrastructure and hosting services, with multiple protection layers that addresses most modern cybersecurity challenges. For encryption they use the industry-standard AES-256 for stored data and SSL/TLS for data in transit. Their infrastructure is also protected by Anti-DDoS systems, automated vulnerability scanning, and web application firewalls- though potential customers should note these advanced features require separate subscription rather than being included in base packages.

While the core security infrastructure provides substantial protection, organizations with specialized compliance requirements or complex threat landscapes may need to engage Huawei's partner network for additional professional security consulting. This modular approach allows clients to tailor security investments to their specific risk profiles and operational needs. The platform's architecture demonstrates thoughtful security design, though users must actively evaluate which supplemental services merit investment based on their unique operational requirements and data sensitivity levels.

OS

They offer a wide range of operating systems to choose from for their Elastic Cloud Servers (ECS) services. For Windows-based plans, they offer the choice between Windows Server 2022 Standard, and older editions like Windows Server 2019, 2016, and Windows 2012 R2. Linux users on the other hand, get to choose between CentOS 6.3 - 8.3, Ubuntu 12.04 - 22.04, and their very own, custom made Huawei Cloud EulerOS 2.0 operating system. This OS is a Linux distribution that Huawei created especially for use in their cloud. It is a stable, high-performance operating system, and is known for its enterprise-class security and support. It provides support for a wide variety of applications, so it’s an excellent choice for companies that want to deploy scalable solutions on the cloud.

Support

The support I received from this provider left me rather impressed! Their agents are courteous and responsive, but there was a slight language barrier to deal with. That being said, their target market is Asia, so it is not surprising at all. 

Their Developer Support Plan provides standard technical support with a response time of up to 12 hours, perfect for small businesses or single users, while medium and larger businesses might prefer the Business Support Plan, which provides 24/7 online support with a guaranteed replies within 1-hour. Large-scale deployments can be handled by the Enterprise Support Plan with 24/7 support by dedicated Technical Account Managers (TAMs) with responses guaranteed within 15 minutes, with proactive risk identification and launch support.

Conclusion

If you're an organization with your HQ in or expanding to Asia, or simply on the hunt for an Asian-based cloud provider with solid regional roots, they're certainly worth checking out. They offer scalable computing power, storage and AI-powered solutions among others and are thus suited to larger enterprises and developers and tech-savvy startups with the need for high-performance web hosting. However, if you're a small company or individual that needs more conventional shared hosting, or an easy solution, it will not be suitable, given that there is some learning curve and support does involve some language barrier to contend with.