Alibaba Cloud Announces Global Partnership Program to Boost Public Cloud Services Worldwide

MAP program enables enterprises worldwide to leverage Alibaba cloud computing's public and optimal cloud solutions

Hangzhou, China, June 8, 2015 － Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Group's (NYSE: BABA) cloud computing arm, today announced the launch of Marketplace Alliance Program (MAP), a global partnership program that provides enterprises with access to Alibaba Cloud's full suite of cloud computing services and international partners.

This new program will enable Alibaba Cloud to localize its cloud computing offerings by partnering with enterprises in different regions and provide localized hybrid cloud computing services to meet the regional needs of global developers.

The initial Alibaba Cloud's MAP partners are some of the world's leading technology brands, including American multinational technology company Intel, Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel, Dubai holding company Meraas Holdings, Equinix, a U.S. provider of data centers and Internet exchanges, Hong Kong telco and information technology company PCCW, French website hosting and cloud services provider LINKBYNET, and Hong Kong public utility Towngas. By collaborating with international partners and combining their experience and expertise in local markets, Alibaba Cloud is able to reduce infrastructure cost, improve networking efficiency, optimize cloud solutions, pass along savings and provide hybrid cloud services to cloud consumers in internet, finance, energy, gaming, entertainment, healthcare and education.

"The new Alibaba Cloud 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 (Ethan) YU, vice president, Alibaba Cloud.

Commenting on the scheme, Raejeanne Skillern, general manager of Cloud Service Provider Business at Intel Corporation, said, "For years Intel and Alibaba have collaborated on optimizing hardware and software technology across the data center for Alibaba's unique workloads. As a partner in Alibaba Cloud'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."

Alibaba Cloud creates sophisticated networking solutions and makes big-data intelligence products and services available to small and medium sized companies, while driving the adoption of cloud services among large enterprises.

"As one of the first global partners of Alibaba Cloud, Singtel will offer our customers even more choices in cloud infrastructure platforms in China and around the world," said Lim Seng Kong, Singtel's managing director (Global Enterprise Business). "With Singtel's strong Managed Cloud services capabilities, extensive customer reach and strong suite of information and communications technology services, we can also provide the springboard for Alibaba Cloud to grow its footprint in the Asia-Pacific, which is one of the fastest growing markets for cloud services."

"Worldwide adoption of cloud services continues to rise, with Asia representing one of the fastest-growing cloud markets in the world. Our goal at Equinix is to provide on-demand and direct access to multiple clouds and multiple networks seamlessly around the globe. By joining MAP and offering access to its cloud services on Cloud Exchange, we are one step closer to fulfilling this goal, enabling our multi-national customers the ability to expand their cloud-based applications across Asia, in a secure, direct manner," said Chris Sharp, vice president, cloud innovation at Equinix.

"We are honored that Alibaba Cloud's scalable and secured cloud technology has chosen to couple with PCCW Globe's extensive geographic coverage, and can thus open up a new vista of opportunities in both developed and emerging markets so as to facilitate productivity and cost effectiveness," said Stephen Pang, PCCW global senior vice president of Asia & CIS.

Alibaba Cloud has data centers in Beijing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Silicon Valley, and Dubai (under construction). As of June 30, 2014, Alibaba Cloud served more than 1.4 million customers directly and indirectly through independent service providers.

According to IDC's report, public cloud spending globally will grow by 25 percent in 2015 to reach USD $21 billion, and private cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow 16 percent over the year to USD $12 billion. This will give a worldwide total cloud spend for 2015 of USD $32 billion, up 28 percent on 2014's USD $26.4 billion.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in September 2009, Alibaba Cloud develops highly scalable cloud computing and data management services providing large and small businesses, financial institutions, governments and other organizations with flexible, cost-effective solutions to meet their networking and information needs. A business of Alibaba Group, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, Alibaba Cloud operates the network that powers Alibaba Group's extensive online and mobile commerce ecosystem and sells a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support sellers and other third parties participating in this ecosystem.