Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, said it will open four new data centers by the end of 2016 in the Middle East Europe, Australia and Japan.
“The new centers will boost its data center network to 14 locations, covering key economic centers around the world,” it said.
The data center in the Middle East, located in Dubai, is the first online and started initial operations today.
The aim is to provide better latency and more services such as data storage and analytics services, enterprise-level middleware, and cloud security services.
‘Data is power’: Is big data Alibaba’s secret weapon in global cloud race?
READ CBR’s interview with Alibaba’s General Manager for Cloud on what’s secret to cloud success
Data centre footprint is a key battle ground for cloud service provision and move provides greater competition for AWS and Microsoft. (See below)
Europe
To support enterprises in Europe, Alibaba Cloud will partner with Vodafone Germany to open its first data centre in Europe. The center is co-located in Vodafone’s data facilities in Frankfurt, Germany, one of the leading technology hubs in Europe with a highly developed infrastructure supporting technological innovation.
Middle East
Alibaba Cloud said it will be the first major global public cloud services provider to offer cloud services from a local data center in the Middle East. The opening of the Dubai Data Center is held in conjunction with YVOLV, a joint venture of Alibaba Cloud and Meraas Holdings, a Dubai-based holding company with a portfolio spanning across key economic sectors in the United Arab Emirates.
Australia
Alibaba Cloud will open a new data center in Sydney, Australia by the end of 2016. Alibaba Cloud will bring its most popular cloud services in data storage and processing services, enterprise-level middleware, and cloud security services to the Australian market. A dedicated team will be based in Australia, and build up a cloud ecosystem with local technology partners to drive cloud and big-data business in the region.
Japan
The Japan Data Center, hosted by SB Cloud Corporation, a joint venture between Softbank and Alibaba Group, will provide Japanese enterprises with competitive and enhanced public cloud computing services from Alibaba Cloud. With the joint venture, Alibaba Cloud will further expand its cloud computing service platform by leveraging SoftBank’s extensive enterprise customer base in Japan.
The firm said it wants to grow its current client base of ‘2.3 million.’
“Alibaba Cloud has contributed significantly to China’s technology advancement, establishing critical commerce infrastructure to enable cross-border businesses, online marketplaces, payments, logistics, cloud computing and big data to work together seamlessly. We want to establish cloud computing as the digital foundation for the new global economy using the opportunities of cloud computing to empower businesses of all sizes across all markets,” said Simon Hu, President of Alibaba Cloud.
Citing Singles Day, the Chinese equivalent of Black Friday the firm said evidence of the potential of Alibaba Cloud can be seen during the recently completed 2016 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, where Alibaba Cloud technology supported all of Alibaba’s online marketplaces and facilitated a record-breaking 175,000 transactions per second during peak traffic spikes.
“The four new data centers will further expand Alibaba Cloud’s global ecosystem and footprint, allowing us to meet the increasing demand for secure and scalable cloud computing services from businesses and industries worldwide. The true potential of data-driven digital transformation will be seen through globalization and the opportunities brought by the new global economy will become a reality,” said Sicheng Yu, Vice President of Alibaba Group and General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Global.
Microsoft claims UK cloud dominance over AWS with local data centres
