After Dubai, Alibaba launches Sydney datacenter

Earlier this month, Alibaba cloud, had announced expansion of its data-centers to four regions, namely Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Australia by the end of this year. Following its datacenter launch in Dubai, the company has now opened a datacenter in Sydney. With the rollout of two new data-centers, the company plans to expand its global cloud footprint against existing market players such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. In addition to this, it will also help small and mid sized enterprises to do business globally. “Alibaba Cloud will make easier for Australian small to mid-size enterprises (SMEs) looking to do business in China, given its strength and scale in its native market. We are a real global cloud [platform] in terms of having a global infrastructure covering both the west side and east side,” said Sicheng Yu, Vice- President, Alibaba.

“If an Australian enterprise is looking to set up an e-commerce portal serving their global customer needs, including the Australian local market, the Middle East, and China, what you would typically do is acquire a virtual machine from a cloud vendor, the connectivity in those locations, and the data-center. We would be the perfect vendor to provide this because we have facilities in all these locations,” Yu further added.

The company claims to fill the gap through a program called AliLaunch. This program helps the enterprise in overcoming common technological and commercial obstacles that international companies have when expanding into China. The company’s initial focus in Australia will be to move small businesses to the cloud. The company will also have a dedicated team in Australia that will help build out Alibaba’s local cloud ecosystem. The enterprise including Australia now has a physical presence in 14 locations around the world including mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US.