Aliyun, Alibaba Group's (NYSE: BABA) cloud computing arm, today announced the launch of Marketplace Alliance Program (MAP), a global partnership program that provides enterprises with access to Aliyun's full suite of cloud computing services and international partners.
This new program will enable Aliyun to localize its cloud computing offerings by partnering with enterprises in different regions and provide localized hybrid cloud computing services to meet the regional needs of global developers.
The initial Aliyun's MAP partners are some of the world's leading technology brands, including American multinational technology company Intel, Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel, Dubai holding company Meraas Holdings, Equinix, a U.S. provider of data centers and Internet exchanges, Hong Kong telco and information technology company PCCW, French website hosting and cloud services provider LINKBYNET, and Hong Kong public utility Towngas. By collaborating with international partners and combining their experience and expertise in local markets, Aliyun is able to reduce infrastructure cost, improve networking efficiency, optimize cloud solutions, pass along savings and provide hybrid cloud services to cloud consumers in internet, finance, energy, gaming, entertainment, healthcare and education.
"The new Aliyun program is designed to bring our customers the best cloud computing solutions by partnering with some of the most respected technology brands in the world. We will continue to bring more partners online to grow our cloud computing ecosystem," said Sicheng (Ethan) YU, vice president, Aliyun.
Commenting on the scheme, Raejeanne Skillern, general manager of Cloud Service Provider Business at Intel Corporation, said, "For years Intel and Alibaba have collaborated on optimizing hardware and software technology across the data center for Alibaba's unique workloads. As a partner in Aliyun's Marketplace Alliance Program, Intel looks forward to continuing our collaboration to promoting joint technology solutions that are based on Intel Architecture specifically tailored to the rapidly growing market of international public cloud consumers."
Aliyun creates sophisticated networking solutions and makes big-data intelligence products and services available to small and medium sized companies, while driving the adoption of cloud services among large enterprises.
"As one of the first global partners of Aliyun, Singtel will offer our customers even more choices in cloud infrastructure platforms in China and around the world," said Lim Seng Kong, Singtel's managing director (Global Enterprise Business). "With Singtel's strong Managed Cloud services capabilities, extensive customer reach and strong suite of information and communications technology services, we can also provide the springboard for Aliyun to grow its footprint in the Asia-Pacific, which is one of the fastest growing markets for cloud services."
"Worldwide adoption of cloud services continues to rise, with Asia representing one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in the world. Our goal at Equinix is to provide on-demand and direct access to multiple clouds and multiple networks seamlessly around the globe. By joining MAP and offering access to its cloud services on Cloud Exchange, we are one step closer to fulfilling this goal, enabling our multi-national customers the ability to expand their cloud-based applications across Asia, in a secure, direct manner," said Chris Sharp, vice president, cloud innovation at Equinix.
"We are honored that Aliyun's scalable and secured cloud technology has chosen to couple with PCCW Globe's extensive geographic coverage, and can thus open up a new vista of opportunities in both developed and emerging markets so as to facilitate productivity and cost effectiveness," said Stephen Pang, PCCW global senior vice president of Asia & CIS.
Aliyun has data centers in Beijing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley, and Dubai (under construction). As of June 30, 2014, Aliyun served more than 1.4 million customers directly and indirectly through independent service providers.
According to IDC's report, public cloud spending globally will grow by 25 percent in 2015 to reach USD $21 billion, and private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow 16 percent over the year to USD $12 billion. This will give a worldwide total cloud spend for 2015 of USD $32 billion, up 28 percent on 2014's USD $26.4 billion.
About Aliyun
Established in September 2009, Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud Computing) develops highly scalable cloud computing and data management services providing large and small businesses, financial institutions, governments and other organizations with flexible, cost-effective solutions to meet their networking and information needs. A business of Alibaba Group, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, Aliyun operates the network that powers Alibaba Group's extensive online and mobile commerce ecosystem and sells a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support sellers and other third parties participating in this ecosystem.
