Alibaba Cloud to build data center in PH 

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, announced plans to build a data center in the Philippines, which it tagged as its “most important market” in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report by Sun Star.

Leo Liu, general manager for Hong Kong, Macau and Philippines, said in a media roundtable Tuesday, June 8, 2021, that the data center will allow Alibaba Cloud to assist more companies in the Philippines in their data transformation journeys.

He said there is a strong demand for Alibaba Cloud’s products and services in the Philippines because of its predominantly young population and the government’s cloud-first policy.

The data center will be built in Metro Manila and will launched within 2021. It will extend Alibaba Cloud’s offerings, ranging from elastic compute, database, security and network services to machine learning and data analytics.

“Cloud computing has become central to the digitalization of business in the Philippines and around Asia. With our first data center in the country, we will be able to better support Philippine enterprises in adopting cloud technologies and preparing for a digital-first future,” Liu said.

“We look forward to building out the cloud ecosystem in the Philippines and contributing to the digital economy in Asia, leveraging the synergy with other hubs in the region,” he added.

Allen Guo, Philippines country manager, said they are looking to work with companies engaged in financial technology, retail, media, education and e-commerce.

He said they have updated their cloud services to tailor to the needs of Philippine companies.

Among Alibaba Cloud’s offerings is hybrid cloud since Guo said the Philippines is “still in the early stages of cloud adoption.”

Guo said the new data center underscores Alibaba Cloud’s commitment to equip Philippine customers with secure, reliable and scalable cloud solutions.

“It is important for local enterprises to have access to reliable cloud architecture to efficiently meet the evolving needs of Filipino consumers. We are glad to be in a position to provide local enterprises with the tools they need to succeed,” Guo said.

The company has formed partnerships with more than 20 business organizations.

Under the Philippines Ecosystem Alliance, Guo said Alibaba Cloud is committed to share its products, services and technologies to partners in the Philippines.

To date, he said they have trained 10,000 digital talents. The target is to train up to 50,000 digital talents and help 5,000 businesses migrate to cloud by 2023.

Alibaba Cloud entered the Philippine market in 2019. It has been ranked as the leading public cloud service provider in the Asia-Pacific region and third globally, according to Gartner.