Alibaba is making rapid strides in the global cloud market, with the opening of a new data center in the Australian city of Sydney. This is one of the four international destinations that Alibaba plans to open data centers over the next one year. The other three locations are not yet revealed by the company, though they are expected to be in Dubai, Germany, and Japan. These data centers are a part of the $1 billion investment that the company has allotted to expand its global footprint in the cloud market. The services that are likely to be offered in this data center include storage, analytics services, cloud security, and middleware for enterprises.
Besides announcing Sydney as one of the locations, Alibaba also said that it plans to expand the size of its team in Sydney and Australia to meet the growing demand for its business in Australia, and also to service this new data center. The company even hinted that it will open more such centers in Sydney and other parts of Australia, based on the success of this one. Alibaba’s strategy of team expansion and the choice of Sydney as one of the locations is a no-brainer, considering that China is Australia’s largest trading partner. Currently, China accounts for more than one-third of goods and services exported from Australia, and these numbers are expected to grow over the next five years, thanks to the historic China-Australia free trade Agreement that was signed in December 2015.
Alibaba has made a strategic move by choosing Sydney, as small and mid-size companies in Australia are always looking for ways to expand to the Chinese market. Also, it can provide a wide range of cloud products and services – more than any other Australian provider, partly because of its size and infrastructure.
Recently, the company opened a new office in Melbourne to help Australian cloud customers to increase their presence in China, and this data center is expected to compliment this service. As of now, Australian businesses can make the most of Alibaba’s cloud storage, data processing, middleware, and its payment portal Alipay to reach out to Chinese clients. This data enter will also give Australian businesses a chance to expand globally to other countries too, as they can now depend on a reliable and scalable infrastructure.
Established in 2009, Alibaba’s cloud business has made rapid strides in the cloud market. With more than 2.3 million subscribers, an annual turnover of more than $1 billion, and an annual growth rate of more than 130 percent, Alibaba surely is one of the fastest growing cloud companies in the world. Currently, Alibaba has 14 data centers located in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the east and west coast of the USA. This company also processed the largest ever volume of online shopping in a single day, when it handled a record-breaking $17.7 billion in sales on China’s “Singles Day” that fell on November 11. With such a proven infrastructure, it’s no surprise that the company is willing to expand beyond Chinese shores.
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