diff --git a/mmengine/_strategy/__init__.py b/mmengine/_strategy/__init__.py
index 0b201aef..af369751 100644
--- a/mmengine/_strategy/__init__.py
+++ b/mmengine/_strategy/__init__.py
@@ -1,15 +1,14 @@
 # Copyright (c) OpenMMLab. All rights reserved.
-from mmengine.utils import digit_version, is_installed
+from mmengine.utils import digit_version
 from mmengine.utils.dl_utils import TORCH_VERSION
 from .base import BaseStrategy
+from .deepspeed import DeepSpeedStrategy
 from .distributed import DDPStrategy
 from .single_device import SingleDeviceStrategy
 
-__all__ = ['BaseStrategy', 'DDPStrategy', 'SingleDeviceStrategy']
-
-if is_installed('deepspeed'):
-    from .deepspeed import DeepSpeedStrategy  # noqa: F401
-    __all__.append('DeepSpeedStrategy')
+__all__ = [
+    'BaseStrategy', 'DDPStrategy', 'SingleDeviceStrategy', 'DeepSpeedStrategy'
+]
 
 if digit_version(TORCH_VERSION) >= digit_version('2.0.0'):
     try:
diff --git a/mmengine/_strategy/deepspeed.py b/mmengine/_strategy/deepspeed.py
index 0c1d1e42..999ba4d0 100644
--- a/mmengine/_strategy/deepspeed.py
+++ b/mmengine/_strategy/deepspeed.py
@@ -4,7 +4,11 @@ import os.path as osp
 import time
 from typing import Callable, Dict, List, Optional, Union
 
-import deepspeed
+try:
+    import deepspeed
+except ImportError:
+    deepspeed = None
+
 import torch.nn as nn
 
 import mmengine
@@ -71,6 +75,10 @@ class DeepSpeedStrategy(BaseStrategy):
         # the following args are for BaseStrategy
         **kwargs,
     ):
+        assert deepspeed is not None, \
+            'DeepSpeed is not installed. Please check ' \
+            'https://github.com/microsoft/DeepSpeed#installation.'
+
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
 
         self.config = self._parse_config(config)
diff --git a/mmengine/model/wrappers/_deepspeed.py b/mmengine/model/wrappers/_deepspeed.py
index a161afd3..51559d8b 100644
--- a/mmengine/model/wrappers/_deepspeed.py
+++ b/mmengine/model/wrappers/_deepspeed.py
@@ -2,11 +2,15 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Union
 
 import torch
-from deepspeed.runtime.engine import DeepSpeedEngine
 
 from mmengine.optim.optimizer._deepspeed import DeepSpeedOptimWrapper
 from mmengine.registry import MODEL_WRAPPERS
 
+try:
+    from deepspeed.runtime.engine import DeepSpeedEngine
+except ImportError:
+    DeepSpeedEngine = None
+
 
 @MODEL_WRAPPERS.register_module()
 class MMDeepSpeedEngineWrapper:
diff --git a/mmengine/optim/__init__.py b/mmengine/optim/__init__.py
index d83fa51c..78c6850a 100644
--- a/mmengine/optim/__init__.py
+++ b/mmengine/optim/__init__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 # Copyright (c) OpenMMLab. All rights reserved.
-from mmengine.utils import is_installed
 from .optimizer import (OPTIM_WRAPPER_CONSTRUCTORS, OPTIMIZERS,
                         AmpOptimWrapper, ApexOptimWrapper, BaseOptimWrapper,
-                        DefaultOptimWrapperConstructor, OptimWrapper,
-                        OptimWrapperDict, ZeroRedundancyOptimizer,
-                        build_optim_wrapper)
+                        DeepSpeedOptimWrapper, DefaultOptimWrapperConstructor,
+                        OptimWrapper, OptimWrapperDict,
+                        ZeroRedundancyOptimizer, build_optim_wrapper)
 # yapf: disable
 from .scheduler import (ConstantLR, ConstantMomentum, ConstantParamScheduler,
                         CosineAnnealingLR, CosineAnnealingMomentum,
@@ -32,9 +31,5 @@ __all__ = [
     'OptimWrapperDict', 'OneCycleParamScheduler', 'OneCycleLR', 'PolyLR',
     'PolyMomentum', 'PolyParamScheduler', 'ReduceOnPlateauLR',
     'ReduceOnPlateauMomentum', 'ReduceOnPlateauParamScheduler',
-    'ZeroRedundancyOptimizer', 'BaseOptimWrapper'
+    'ZeroRedundancyOptimizer', 'BaseOptimWrapper', 'DeepSpeedOptimWrapper'
 ]
-
-if is_installed('deepspeed'):
-    from .optimizer import DeepSpeedOptimWrapper  # noqa:F401
-    __all__.append('DeepSpeedOptimWrapper')
diff --git a/mmengine/optim/optimizer/__init__.py b/mmengine/optim/optimizer/__init__.py
index b9674ee0..bc868e98 100644
--- a/mmengine/optim/optimizer/__init__.py
+++ b/mmengine/optim/optimizer/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Copyright (c) OpenMMLab. All rights reserved.
-from mmengine.utils import is_installed
+from ._deepspeed import DeepSpeedOptimWrapper
 from .amp_optimizer_wrapper import AmpOptimWrapper
 from .apex_optimizer_wrapper import ApexOptimWrapper
 from .base import BaseOptimWrapper
@@ -14,9 +14,5 @@ __all__ = [
     'OPTIM_WRAPPER_CONSTRUCTORS', 'OPTIMIZERS',
     'DefaultOptimWrapperConstructor', 'build_optim_wrapper', 'OptimWrapper',
     'AmpOptimWrapper', 'ApexOptimWrapper', 'OptimWrapperDict',
-    'ZeroRedundancyOptimizer', 'BaseOptimWrapper'
+    'ZeroRedundancyOptimizer', 'BaseOptimWrapper', 'DeepSpeedOptimWrapper'
 ]
-
-if is_installed('deepspeed'):
-    from ._deepspeed import DeepSpeedOptimWrapper  # noqa:F401
-    __all__.append('DeepSpeedOptimWrapper')