Alibaba Cloud launches eight new products
Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, recently deployed eight products spanning the gamut of artificial intelligence (A.I.), big data, infrastructure, security and private cloud solutions.
The products were unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. The purpose of the products, according to Alibaba Cloud, is to provide efficiencies in online and offline retail integration, smart manufacturing and smart-city development for European companies.
“Alibaba Cloud wants to be an enabler for technology innovation in Europe helping enterprises do business,” said Yeming Wang, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Europe, in a statement. “The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is a great opportunity for us refresh our European strategy and consider how we can make an increasing contribution to the digital transformation of enterprises in this market from different sectors with our offerings and expertise.”
Three out of the eight products are related specifically to data technology and A.I., including Image Search solutions, a chatbot for business called Intelligent Services Robot and an intelligent data engine called Dataphin.
Moreover, Alibaba Cloud launched ECS Baremetal Instance, the Super Computing Cluster, the next-generation Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), the Vulnerability Discovery security service and the cloud-services platform Apsara Stack. These products are used for various purposes, such as moving applications to the cloud.
The release of the products is part of a wider initiative by Alibaba Cloud to gain a competitive edge over rivals in the cloud computing market. The company announced about three years ago plans to invest $1 billion in cloud computing globally to better compete with Amazon. Although Alibaba Cloud is recognized as the leading public cloud service provider in China, the cloud makes up only 4% of the company’s total revenues.
The products launched were originally limited to Alibaba Cloud clients in China before being made available to European businesses. This isn’t the first time Alibaba Cloud has sought to expand its presence in Europe, however. In addition to partnering with businesses outside of China, such as the Met Office in the U.K. and Station F in France, the company opened its first availability zone in Frankfurt, Germany in November 2016.
“The decision making around how a business is to operate in the digital age is increasingly a strategic one,” Wang added. “To meet their changing needs, we are able to leverage our practical experience of digital transformation and successes accumulated in China to the benefit of European enterprises. These advanced solutions will enable organizations in a wide range of sectors and will bring them true connectivity, both locally and globally. For Alibaba Cloud, this is the true meaning of inclusive technology.”
