Chinese firm plans to launch data centers in Middle East, Europe, Australia and Japan this year.
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, plans to launch four new data centers by the end of 2016. The data centers are set to be housed in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and Japan.
With the new additions, the Chinese company said it will operate data centers in 14 locations globally, and confirmed its new data center in the Middle East, located in Dubai and launched in association with its YVOLV joint venture with Meraas Holdings, was already in operations. The company said customers worldwide will have access to a services including data storage and analytics services, enterprise-level middleware and cloud security services.
“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,” said Simon Hu, president of Alibaba Cloud. “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.”
Alibaba Cloud said it will partner with German mobile operator Vodafone to launch its first data center in Europe. The data center is set to be colocated in Vodafone’s facilities in Frankfurt, Germany. The Chinese company said the facility is well positioned to meet the increasing demand for sophisticated cloud computing services.
In Australia, Alibaba Cloud said it plans to open a new data center in Sydney by the end of this year, with the goal of offering its cloud services to the Australian market. The Japanese data center is set to be hosted by SB Cloud, a joint venture between Japanese telco SoftBank and Alibaba Group.
