Alibaba Cloud, Chinese e-Commerce giant Alibaba’s cloud subsidiary, is set to open its second data-center in Europe next year. This move, Alibaba says, is followed by their last year’s launch ‘YVOLV’, a 50-50 joint venture between Alibaba Cloud and Dubai-based Meraas Holding.
According to Simon Hu, Senior Vice-President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud, the Middle-East region has the capacity for more data centers since more businesses are embracing digital transformation. He also added that their collaboration with Khalifa University for Science in Abu Dhabi has led to major breakthroughs in a bid to recover oil. Speaking about the collaboration, Hu explained:
We have reached a number of milestones here. We have partnered with Khalifa University of Science and Technology to identify joint opportunities in big data, internet of things, robotics and cloud computing.
Alibaba claim cloud happens to be a profitable business for them and has seen exponential growth over a period of time. Since their presence in the Middle East market in the form of a joint venture, Amazon says that they have won the confidence of quite a few big names like Mashreq, Dubai Parks and Resorts, gaming companies like Onmet and Pegasus, and e-Commerce platform JollyChic. Giving an overview of these dealings, Hu added:
As we are a listed company, we cannot disclose all the names due to cybersecurity reasons. Before companies were using data centers in the US and Europe but now, they are using the local data centers.
According to Alibaba Cloud, several lucrative opportunities lay for them on the anvil. They also added that they plan to serve more SMEs, government organizations, and enterprises alike with their data center strength.