Alibaba’s Cloud Division Ramps Up Partner Program To Global Scale

The cloud computing division of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has accelerated its efforts to attract global customers with the launch of a partner program that will offer businesses access to its full suite of cloud services.

Aliyun’s Marketplace Alliance Program (MAP) will allow the cloud division to target businesses around the world with localised cloud computing offerings as the firm looks to partner with enterprises in different regions.

“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 YU, vice president, Aliyun.

Intel and Equinix

Aside from a previously announced partner in the Middle East, Meraas Holdings, the MAP program has now scooped up alliances with Intel, Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel and US data centre provider Equinix.

For Intel, the partnership may prove to be of mutual benefit as the chip provider looks to increase revenues in China and compete with rival chipmaker Qualcomm, which holds a majority mobile chip market share in the country, providing chips for companies such as Xiaomi.

Raejeanne Skillern, general manager of Cloud Service Provider Business at Intel Corporation said: “For years Intel and Alibaba have collaborated on optimising hardware and software technology across the data centre 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 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 cloud customers.

Equnix, still hot from its buyout of UK data centre provider Telecity, said that by partnering with Aliyun, the firm is “one step closer” to providing global access to its clouds and networks.

“Worldwide adoption of cloud services continues to rise, with Asia representing one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in the world,” said Chris Sharp, VP at Equinix. “Our goal at Equinix is to provide on-demand and direct access to multiple clouds and multiple networks seamlessly around the globe.”

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