AliCloud, Alibaba Group’s cloud-computing arm, is opening another Silicon Valley data center to meet demand and provide back-up capacity to its existing California center opened in March, the company announced today.
The new Silicon Valley data center can accommodate growing demand for cloud and big-data services among West Coast businesses for the next three to five years, according to AliCloud. The center will offer all AliCloud services currently available in international markets, which are expected to appeal to start-up businesses “looking to reduce the cost of cloud-based service delivery and big data analytics, as well as established businesses in the gaming, multimedia and mobile Internet industries,” AliCloud (formerly known as Aliyun) said in a press release.
The bulk of AliCloud’s business is in China, but earlier this year the company began competing in international markets with the opening of its first U.S. data center. The new facility, which will begin acceptingcustomer applications for serviceson Oct. 12,is AliCloud’s ninth globally and the fourth center announced in 2015.
“Our data centers are typically located in key innovation and commerce hubs around the world, where we expect growing demand for cost-efficient cloud computing services,” said AliCloud Vice President Ethan Yu in a statement. Yu noted that Silicon Valley is “the epicentre for technology innovation worldwide.”
AliCloud’s international rollout is aided by the company’s acquisition of local partners to serve foreign markets. These partners—among them Mesosphere, Bankware Global, Appcara, Appnovation, Cloud Comrade and Panzura—provide services that complement AliCloud’s, the company said, reducing infrastructure costs and improving networking efficiency.
The company’s strategy aims to help Chinese enterprises reach the world, and help foreign enterprises enter China’s market, where AliCloud supports Alibaba’s giant e-commerce platforms. The launch of data centers in Silicon Valley is expected to make it easier for Internet companies in China to expand their businesses in North America AliCloud plans to open additional international facilities in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
