Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 16, 2018

SINGAPORE: Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, has launched nine new products for the global market in the areas of cloud architecture, machine learning, Internet of things (IoT) and security.

Speaking at the Alibaba Cloud Summit Infinity 2018 here yesterday, Alibaba Cloud International’s chief solution architect Derek Wang said these products will meet the needs of retailers in the region that are looking to digitise their operations under the new retail concept that integrates online and offline platforms or also known as omnichannel.

Wang noted that this is the first new product launch outside China. “This shows our commitment in the Asia-Pacific region,” he added.

With these new product offerings, Alibaba Cloud is poised to strengthen its collaboration with customers and partners across different industries and also provide customers with efficiency and security.

“Asia-Pacific is a unique market, and as a global cloud services provider with an Asian origin, we are committed to leveraging our knowledge and experience to build a sustainable regional ecosystem and enrich our offerings to meet the needs of our customers in this digital age,” said Wang.

“This new suite of offerings includes products that are highly efficient, cost-effective, and some of them are the first of their kind in the industry,” Wang said.

“These products all have specific features that meet an identified need within the flourishing retail market in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Wang, adding that e-commerce is witnessing considerable growth and Alibaba Cloud, leveraging the group’s development, can offer a mature ecosystem to support the regional retail sector.

“Using these products will help merchants deploy their resources more effectively and gain deeper consumer insights.

“The technology available can also give our consumers better protection against fraud and an improved shopping experience,” Wang said.

Additionally, the summit also witnessed the launch of the Asean Partner Alliance Programme, which aspires to develop a sustainable ecosystem to empower more technology vendors, service providers, system integrators, ISVs and start-ups to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives.

The programme aims to recruit 150 solution partners and train 600 sales and technology personnel in the next 12 months to fuel the growth of the ecosystem.

Last month, Alibaba Cloud launched the second Availability Zone and the first cloud-based Anti-DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Scrubbing Centre in Malaysia, which provides customers with new levels of protection against DDoS attacks.

Earlier, Yeming Wang, Alibaba Cloud International’s Business president said Alibaba’s development in the last 20 years revolved around digitalisation.

From e-commerce to finance, from logistics to smart cities, Wang noted that Alibaba is neither the only contributor in the digitalisation journey nor the only beneficiary. “So today, we want to bring these capabilities and expertise to more partners and clients. In a lot of aspects, we are influencing the world,” said Wang, in his introductory speech.

“Today, we (Alibaba Cloud) are ranked third in the global public cloud market. And in China, we have more than 47% of the market share,” said Wang, adding that Alibaba’s intention is to be a gateway for its partners, to be a business partner and not just a simple supplier in the Asia-Pacific region.

He added that Alibaba aims to further develop its partner ecosystem from “several thousands” of partners today to 10,000 partners in the next three years.

He said Alibaba Cloud is also eyeing cooperation with universities, developers, and start-ups, adding that the group is looking to secure 3,500 academic partnerships globally in the next three years.

At yesterday’s event, Alibaba Cloud also announced its partnership with National University of Singapore to push forward Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative and technology research under the Innovation Incubator Programme, which aims to equip young talents with knowledge from Alibaba Cloud Academy and to also provide start-up opportunities.

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