IT Giants Flock to the Cloud
On October 25, the Pentagon announced that Microsoft had won a 10-year, $10 billion cloud computing project from the US Department of Defense. This cloud computing project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, is the key to the US Department of Defense’s ability to move most of its computing power from on-site servers to the cloud.
Similar to the United States, the Chinese government has continuously issued large orders for digital construction for two years. These billion-dollar orders show an important change in the government’s digital construction, from the original purchase of IT software and hardware for local deployment, to platform deployment based on cloud computing architecture. Not only the government, but also the digital construction of enterprises is increasingly based on the cloud. After more than 10 years of development, the advantages of cloud computing in terms of technology and cost have become increasingly apparent, and security concerns are also being eased. Globally, Internet giants are actively entering large and medium-sized government and enterprise markets that used to be dominated by IT giants such as IBM and Oracle.
High-Speed Railway Operator Goes Public, Marking a milestone in China’s Railway Reform
On November 14, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Co. Ltd. the operator of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, one of China’s busiest high-speed rail lines, was approved to be listed. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail is about to land on the A-shares market, which means that the reform of China’s railway industry will accelerate.
The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is one of the most important branches of China Railway, and its business model has also attracted market attention. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway relies on its resources and location advantages, and started to make a profit after being in operation for only 3 years. As a standard-bearer of China’s railway, the asset-liability ratio of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway has continued to decline. It’s 14.62% in the first three quarters of 2019, and in contrast the average asset-liability ratio in China’s rail business stays at 65%.
Study Shows That Heart Stent Surgery Should be Used With More Caution
Many people with heart disease choose to have a heart stent surgery to treat the disease. However, a recent study has shown that taking medicine and changing lifestyles may achieve the same effect. This $100 million worth study shows that for patients with more severe but stable heart disease, only receiving medication and lifestyle recommendations will not have higher risks of illness or death than patients who received stents or coronary bypass surgery.
This means that for patients in stable condition, interventional procedures like implantation of cardiac stents should be used more cautiously, and decisions about these procedures should not be made too hastily. Once the results of the study went public, and many heart stent manufacturers have suffered to varying degrees. Since the first case of cardiac stent intervention surgery in China in 1984, the number of patients receiving cardiac intervention surgeries in the country has increased dramatically. In the past six months, at least five cardiovascular experts have been investigated.
Tencent Faces Fundamental Challenge
Tencent is considered a company that favors its employees. Employees who work in this company can enjoy 500,000 yuan of interest-free loans for purchasing their first apartment. Newly graduated employees can enjoy more than 1000 yuan per month of housing allowance.
An academic said, “observing the true state of a company’s culture is not looking at the rules that the company advocates, but at its default rules.” Tencent, which emphasizes product and innovative spirit, cares about individuals, The comfortable working atmosphere and respect for each employee are considered as “political correctness” in Tencent. But any kind of culture has its negative effects. To innovate, you need to tolerate different cultural environments, but tolerance sometimes becomes a pampering. If you want to satisfy most people, you will inevitably rest on many things. The fundamental challenge facing Tencent and Alibaba today is that the company is inevitably aging, and although the new challengers are smaller, they are younger. This is a natural part of the business. It remains to be seen whether the older companies continue to evolve to maintain their competitive advantages.
