Alibaba's cloud computing arm to offer services to Indian enterprises from January 2018

Chinese e-tailer Alibaba’s cloud computing arm on Wednesday said its new **data centre in Mumbai** would offer services to Indian enterprises from January. [caption id=“attachment_2249764” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] “We will deliver cloud computing services to small and medium-size Indian businesses from our new data centre, opening in Mumbai in January, 2018,” said the company in a statement here. As a key market in the company’s cloud’s globalisation strategy, India offers a business opportunity for rapid economic growth and scope for enterprises to expand beyond the country. “Our vision to empower enterprises to go global is extended to our Indian clients with cloud products, including computing, storage, and big data processing capabilities,” noted the statement. The data centre will also enable Indian businesses to run their applications on the company’s cloud platform. The data centre’s service offerings include computing, database, storage and content delivery, networking, analytics and big data. Alibaba Cloud has tied up with Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, that enables direct access to Alibaba Cloud Express Connect through GCX’s Cloud X Fusion service. The company had earlier also announced a **partnership with Tata Communications** to provide direct access to Alibaba Cloud Express Connect through Tata Communications’ IZOTM Private Connect Service. Alibaba Cloud has 33 zones in 16 economic centres worldwide, with coverage extending across China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, West Asia, Europe, India and the US. “The data centre will enable us to work with more Indian enterprises, which are innovative and operate in growth sectors,” said Alibaba Vice-President Simon Hu in the statement on the occasion. The company also looks forward to empowering the enterprises through cloud computing and data technologies. “As we build the cloud network globally, India is another important piece that is firmly in place. “This continues our commitment to India, helping it to develop trade opportunities with other markets in the region and beyond,” added Hu. Alibaba Cloud would have a local team of consultants to provide service planning, implementation, and after-sales support, helping Indian companies move to the cloud. “This will extend what Alibaba Cloud is already doing to service thousands of customers from India globally,” the company said. Set up in 2009, Alibaba Cloud is among the largest providers of public cloud services in China and one of the largest Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers in the world.