A dynamic business landscape, technological disruption, and immense competition are driving enterprises to adopt agility, bolster digitalization to meet changing market demands. In 2022, Alibaba Cloud continued our journey towards innovation with technology for our customers and our partners. We sought out new solutions, new partnerships, new value with new ideas, new opportunities, and new innovations.
This year, Alibaba Cloud brought more data centers to South Korea, Thailand, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
On March 30, the new data center in South Korea was launched as part of our expansion plan in the Asia Pacific region, giving South Korean enterprises and SMEs complete access to a wide range of Alibaba Cloud products and services offered.
Alibaba Cloud’s first data center in Thailand launched on May 12, bolstering local businesses’ digital innovation capabilities and in line with the Thailand government’s 20-year National Strategic Plan to provide security, prosperity, and sustainability to the nation. In the same month, Alibaba Cloud launched its third data center in Germany on May 17 to support the growing digital transformation demands from customers across Europe. Together, the three data centers offer European customers high availability, exceptional resilience, and robust disaster recovery capabilities.
Saudi Cloud Computing Company (SCCC), a new joint venture company formed by Alibaba Cloud, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) Group, eWTP Arabia Capital, the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), and the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), announced the opening of two data centers in Riyadh in July.
Alibaba Cloud launched its third data center in Japan on December 15 to support customers’ growing digital transformation demands.
With the introduction of the new data centers, Alibaba Cloud now has a network of 86 availability zones in 28 regions across the globe, offering a highly secure, scalable, robust and sustainable cloud infrastructure to support global customers embracing digital innovation.
A true exploration of tomorrow’s technology is a journey that never ends. It drives us to create and innovate. This year, our world-leading products are still endorsed by global top analyst firms.
The Forrester Wave™ Public Cloud Development and Infrastructure Platforms, Global, Q4 2022 stated, “Alibaba Cloud ranks as a strong performer in global development and infrastructure platform and global reach has grown, providing customers with a wider range of cloud service product types.”* Gartner released the 2022 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems. Alibaba Cloud became the only vendor in China positioned in the “LEADERS” Quadrant of the report for the third consecutive year.
Alibaba Cloud also unveiled key technologies throughout the year:
Some businesses have more data incentive scenarios that require higher cloud computing power, lower latency, and faster connection. Cloud computing is entering a new stage that calls for a new technology infrastructure. Therefore, we unveiled Cloud Infrastructure Processing Unit (CIPU) at Alibaba Cloud Summit 2022. Unlike the traditional CPU-centric architecture design, CIPU is defined as the control and core performance acceleration center of cloud computing. Coupled with the Apsara Cloud operating system, CIPU is expected to become the core of the next generation of cloud computing infrastructure.
Alibaba Cloud launched Wuying Cloudbook during the Apsara Conference 2022. Wuying Cloudbook is designed to provide enterprises with unlimited computing power while helping them enhance data security, improve cost efficiency, and facilitate collaboration in increasingly diverse hybrid office settings. It is an ideal choice for new ways of working, such as remote working, outsourcing, and collaboration between teams in different locations.
At the Apsara Conference 2022, we also announced the launch of ModelScope, an open-source Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform that comes with hundreds of AI models, including large pre-trained models for global developers and researchers. As an open-source community, ModelScope aims to make developing and running AI models easier and more cost-effective. Developers and researchers can simply test the models online for free and get the results of their tests within minutes.
Alibaba Cloud developed and delivered comprehensive technological innovations to the Winter Olympic Games 2022 in Beijing, creating more inclusive experiences for participants and audiences worldwide.
All core systems were hosted on Alibaba Cloud for the first time. Our cloud infrastructure and cloud-based real-time intelligence streamlined the planning and reduced the planning complexity for the event.
Rights-Holding Broadcasters (RHBs) could receive real-time footage through the public cloud infrastructure during the Winter Olympic Games for the first time, leveraging the highly scalable, resilient, and secure global infrastructure of Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud teamed up with OBS to offer a live content delivery platform on the cloud. Over 20 broadcast organizations used Live Cloud to receive the multilateral live signals in ultra-high definition (UHD) or high definition (HD) via OBS Cloud, delivering the excitement of the Olympic Games to the widest possible audience seamlessly.
Alibaba Cloud also launched an innovative cloud-based technology, “Cloud ME”, powered by our real-time communication (RTC) solution. Cloud ME facilitates social interactions for people keen to explore bona fide meeting experiences during the Winter Olympic Games, enabling them to meet and enjoy real-time conversations with each other via life-sized, true-to-life projection. Moreover, Dong Dong, Alibaba's new virtual influencer based on cloud technology, was unveiled for the Winter Olympic Games, bringing the possibilities of cloud-based innovation closer to consumers.
We continued to drive digital transformation for our customers and co-create new solutions to grow with our partners.
This year, Alibaba Cloud collaborated with Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park to deploy the region’s first AI-powered Virtual Queue (VQ) solution that utilizes the latest cloud-based technology to deliver seamless and engaging guest experiences through Genting SkyWorlds’ mobile app. This solution allows the operations team to control crowd distribution and optimize ride capacity better, enabling more efficient crowd management.
Alibaba Cloud and VMware announced the next evolution of Alibaba Cloud VMware Service. With Alibaba Cloud VMware Service, enterprises across China can accelerate enterprise cloud transformation to support digital innovation with lower costs and risk. Alibaba Cloud VMware Service enables enterprises to migrate workloads to the cloud seamlessly and reduce the costs of operations and migration. It also helps enterprises leverage leading cloud technologies to unlock the benefits of digital transformation. With the integration of VMware’s innovative technologies and Alibaba Cloud services, Alibaba Cloud VMware Service is an ideal cloud platform to run enterprise applications.
Together with Alibaba Cloud’s leading cloud computing capabilities, Deloitte China and Alibaba Cloud established the Deloitte-Alibaba Cloud Auto Industry Center. The center focuses on providing end-to-end solutions to customers in the automobile industry, including autonomous driving, intelligent manufacturing, and digital marketing. It aims to support the automobile industry’s digitalization journey, leveraging the benefits of cloud computing technologies to capture the vast opportunity in the automobile industry.
Alibaba Cloud continued to expand its digital footprint to support the digital ecosystem this year.
In July, Alibaba Cloud and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) announced that the Alibaba Talent Programme (ATP) will continue for a fourth year to support outstanding undergraduate and master’s graduates to pursue their Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. The ATP in NTU sponsors Singaporean citizens and permanent residents to pursue their postgraduate degrees in computer science disciplines at NTU Singapore while completing an industrial R&D project at Alibaba.
In August, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Alibaba Cloud signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue collaborating in nurturing local technology talent, collaborating on cutting-edge technology research, and facilitating the research works of HKUST researchers.
In the same month, HKU SPACE, Alibaba Cloud, and SEED Foundation signed a MoU to develop a three-level cloud computing course for secondary school students in Hong Kong. The collaboration launched a series of cloud computing-related courses designed for local secondary school students to provide early access to knowledge in technology and cloud computing for younger generations.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud launched the Digital Heroes Program in Malaysia, a nationwide digital talent strengthening initiative that aims to inspire young talent, bridge the gap between academia and industry, and furnish Malaysia with a strong digital labor force.
Alibaba Cloud launched the Cloud ONE Program during the Alibaba Cloud Summit Philippines 2022 in October to provide Philippine businesses with resources to onboard with Alibaba Cloud more efficiently, including free services to support migration to Alibaba Cloud, streamlined access to the Alibaba Group ecosystem of solutions, free access to industry experts, and cloud training.
Low-code is an important trend in the cloud computing field and has great potential in SEA. We launched the first Low-Code Development Contest Series on Tianchi to introduce Alibaba Cloud low-code tools and build innovative applications for more developers. 2,843 international developers from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Singapore, and Thailand participated, using Alibaba Cloud’s low-code tools (like Intelligent Speech, Image Search, and ALICMS) to build 832 innovative projects and generate a good number of valuable feedback and video tutorials.
As part of Project AsiaForward, there were five Demo Days held during 2022, covering Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, offering startups the chance to be selected for the Global Startup Accelerator and become part of Alibaba Cloud’s global ecosystem. Startup Day provided interactive knowledge exchange, unicorn experience sharing, VCs, and Alibaba Cloud expert tech training sessions for Southeast Asian startups from all stages. We also featured future “Asia Stars” from various fields in the region, advocating for their founders and companies through interviews and videos. We were excited to announce the AsiaStar 10x10 winners this year. The AsiaStar 10x10 initiative recognizes 100 companies, communities, and projects in ten categories across the region.
As an infrastructure provider for a green economy, Alibaba Cloud is committed to expanding its use of renewable and leveraged energy-efficient tech to turn its ecosystem greener and help global customers achieve their net zero targets through insightful actions and informed sustainability practices.
Energy Expert was launched in June. It is a sustainability platform to help customers measure, analyze, and manage the carbon emissions of their business activities and products. Energy Expert uses big data computing and AI technologies to help enterprises scientifically calculate carbon emissions, measure their product carbon footprints, formulate carbon neutrality plans, and implement energy-saving and carbon-reducing schemes to achieve sustainable development.
Alibaba Cloud also launched a sustainability challenge in Singapore to empower businesses and individuals locally with cloud computing innovations to address sustainability issues. The move is also in line with the Singaporean government’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 36% by 2030 to contribute to a climate-resilient world. The challenge offers participants from all verticals to exchange with Alibaba Cloud’s industry experts and our ecosystem partners on how to improve business efficiencies in a sustainable way.
Alibaba Cloud also aims to have its global data centers running entirely on clean energy by 2030. This year Alibaba Cloud’s green technology resulted in a greener Double 11.
Our five hyper-scale data centers across China doubled the amount of clean energy used to support Double 11 in 2022 compared to last year. More than 32 million kilowatt-hours of electricity used by Alibaba Cloud to support Double 11 this year came from renewable energy, up by a 30% daily average compared to last year.
We also worked with Tmall to leverage the carbon management platform, Energy Expert. It provided online carbon footprint modeling, calculations, and certifications for more than 40 brands in various sectors, including paper and pulp, food, and personal care, to help them categorize low-carbon products, identify carbon emission resources, and conduct informed sustainability practices to reduce carbon emissions.
Alibaba Cloud is committed to unlocking new possibilities and innovating anytime and anywhere, leveraging the transformative power of large-scale global cloud computing infrastructure and achieving a harmonious balance between technology and the environment for a greener future. We strive to support enterprises of any size to unlock value at every step, make a big difference, and race to the future faster with the cloud.
Happy New Year from Alibaba Cloud!
We will see you in 2023!
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Dikky Ryan Pratama June 27, 2023 at 12:50 am
awesome!