Alibaba Cloud announces Indian data center
Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, announced its first India data center based in the city of Mumbai is set to open in January 2018. The company originally announced plans to establish two new data centers in Mumbai, India and Jakarta, Indonesia last June. According to the company, the new data center will help meet the demand for cloud computing services among budding small-to-medium size businesses within the area.
The move comes at a time of increased competition within the cloud computing market as service providers abandon in-house data centers for cloud-based data centers. According to market research firm Gartner, Alibaba achieved a greater revenue growth rate in 2016 than Amazon, Microsoft and Google. More recently, the firm reported it exceeded expectations with a 61% revenue rise due to an increase in online sale, according to Reuters.
“We are excited to be officially opening our new Mumbai, India data center in early 2018, enabling us to work closely with more Indian enterprises,” said Simon Hu, senior vice president of Alibaba Group and president of Alibaba Cloud.
“These local enterprises are innovative and operating in growth sectors, and we look forward to empowering them through our cloud computing and data technologies. As we build out the Alibaba Cloud network globally, India is another important piece that is now firmly in place. This continues our commitment to India, helping it to develop trade opportunities with other markets in the region and beyond.”
Alibaba Cloud noted the new data center will give the company 33 availability zones, with coverage spanning mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, India and the U.S. (East and West Coast). The company has partnered with Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, in addition to Tata Communications to offer direct access to Alibaba Cloud Express Connect.
