The cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group has launched eight products for the European market at the Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona.
For the first time Alibaba Cloud’s advanced big data and AI capabilities enabled by super computing power will be made available in Europe.
Alibaba Cloud asserts these new products will meet the surging demand for powerful and reliable cloud computing services as well as advanced AI solutions among European enterprises to support them to capture opportunities in the digital transformation era.
The new products targeted at European enterprises fall into a number of inter-related categories.
Alibaba is launching three products in relation to data technology and AI, including Image Search solutions that allow users to search for information online and offline using images, Intelligent Services Robot, which is a chatbot for business, and Dataphin, a data engine designed to cope with cross industry big data ddevelopement, management and application needs.
And with infrastructure and security crucial as the foundation for enterprises undertaking cloud migration, Alibaba Cloud is launching ECS Baremetal Instance, a new high performance computing solution of ECS that combines the strengths of virtualised systems and bare metal servers. Alibaba Cloud asserts that when connected as a supercomputer, ECS Baremetal becomes a Super Computing Cluster that will reduce network latency to the level of micro-seconds while offering elasticity and supercomputing capabilities.
The company is also introducing its next generation Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) and Vulnerability Discovery Service, a high-performance security solution.
After a successful three year track record in China, Alibaba Cloud is launching the international version of Apsara Stack for European enterprises, a scalable and hybrid cloud services platform.
“Alibaba Cloud wants to be an enabler for technology innovation in Europe helping enterprises do business,” says Alibaba Cloud Europe general manager Yeming Wang.
“The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is a great opportunity for us to 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.”
According to Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence solutions have many successful stories both in China and around the world. Image Search is widely applied in a number of scenarios in China including New Retail, a concept that seamlessly converges online and offline retail.
The intelligent service robot served more than 40 million customers in a single day during last year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
Dataphin, the system for intelligent data creation and management, is now managing 95 percent of the entire Alibaba Group’s data and driving all types of data intelligence innovations within the group’s business ecosystem from retail to finance, logistics, transport and health.
“The decision making around how a business is to operate in the digital age is increasingly a strategic one. 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,” Wang says,
“These advanced solutions will enable organisations 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.”
Alibaba Cloud has affirmed it is committed to investing in cloud computing services and digital infrastructure in Europe.
The company launched its first availability zone in Frankfurt, Germany in late 2016 and recently commenced operation of the second availability zone in the same region.
Alibaba Cloud has already established a number of partners in Europe, including Vodafone in Germany, the Met Office which is the national meteorological service for the UK, and Station F, an innovation hub in France.
