Alibaba to set up second US-based data centre for cloud services

BEIJING - Li Jin, senior product director of Aliyun Cloud Computing, has told a news conference in Beijing that the company will launch a second data centre in the United States as part of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s broad plan to become a global cloud service provider. While no further details of the new centre were provided, Li said the company will set up more data centres in Singapore, Europe and Japan within a year.

Aliyun accounts only for a small portion of Alibaba’s business. Established in 2009 – it has been experiencing steady growth both at home and abroad. But senior analyst Gene Cao at Internet consultancy Forrester Research Inc says the company has a way to go before becoming a huge global player.

“Aliyun is not taking clients from international players such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. Its target customers are Chinese companies that are expanding overseas,” he said. Despite this, Cao says Aliyun “has the potential to become a big service provider in the international arena of cloud computing”. (ATI).