At the 2018 Mobile World Congress, Alibaba Cloud launched eight services for the European market, ranging from big data and artificial intelligence (AI), to infrastructure, security and private cloud solutions.
For the first time in Europe, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, brought about advanced big data and AI capabilities enabled by super computing power. The solutions already have successful applications in China and globally.
The array of services will help European enterprises capture opportunities in the digital era, for applications like online and offline retail integration, smart manufacturing and smart city development, Alibaba said.
The new services fall into a number of inter-related categories. Among them are three key services: Image Search that allows users to search for information online and offline using images, Intelligent Services Robot that serves as a chatbot for business, and Dataphin, an intelligent data engine developed to cope with the big data development, management and application across industries.
There are also infrastructure and security solutions to support enterprises in their cloud migration. ECS Baremetal combines the strengths of virtualized systems and bare metal servers. When connected as a supercomputer, ECS Baremetal Instances becomes a Super Computing Cluster that will reduce network latency to the level of microseconds.
The company will also introduce its next generation intelligent Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) and Vulnerability Discovery Service. For European enterprises that are looking for a scalable and hybrid cloud services platform, Alibaba Cloud will launch the international version of Apsara Stack, which has been deployed in the Chinese market for three years.
Applying Chinese experience
Alibaba is confident about its solutions’ performance. Image Search is applied in a number of scenarios in China including New Retail, a concept that 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 is now managing 95% 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.
Alibaba Cloud wants to be an enabler for technology innovation in Europe helping enterprises do business, said Yeming Wang, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Europe. “The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is a great opportunity for us refresh our European strategy and consider how we can make an increasing contribution to the digital transformation of enterprises in this market.”
To ensure the company’s ability to evolve and expand its products and services to meet customers’ needs in the digital era, Alibaba Cloud is committed to investing in cloud computing services and digital infrastructure in Europe. It opened its first availability zone in Frankfurt Germany in November 2016 and recently commenced operation of the second availability zone in the same region. To better serve its customers in Europe, Alibaba Cloud is establishing a technology ecosystem with European partners, such as Vodafone in Germany, the Met Office which is the national meteorological service for the UK, and Station F, an innovation hub in France.
The decision making around how a business is to operate in the digital age is increasingly a strategic one, Wang said. “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.”
These advanced solutions will enable organizations 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, Wang added.