Apsara Technology Deep-Dive Series is a dedicated series to take an up-close and professional look at the latest technologies introduced during the latest edition of the Apsara Conference (2024), Alibaba Cloud’s annual flagship event.

As Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) models and applications continue to be on top of the agenda for worldwide organisations of all sizes, Alibaba Cloud has introduced a series of new cloud-native solutions and features to provide even more efficient, robust and secure cloud infrastructure to empower its customers and partners build the next-generation AI models and applications.

Eddie Wu, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, highlighted the transformative impact of generative AI, predicting it will increasingly permeate the digital landscape. He noted that as the physical world gains AI capabilities, a new generation of products that connect and synergize with the AI-driven digital world will emerge. “Alibaba Cloud is investing, with unprecedented intensity, in the research and development of AI technology and the building of its global infrastructure,” he said during a keynote speech at Apsara.

A solid AI infrastructure is critical for building GenAI applications because it provides the foundation for performance, scalability, security, and innovation. As part of the series, we will start exploring the key roles of databases (data storage, retrieval, management, inference, fine-tuning and personalization), big data platforms (data processing, model training and deployment, analytics and visualization), security solutions and green data centers, and how they are essential parts of the critical foundation for building GenAI models and applications.