Alibaba Group Holding expands cloud presence beyond China

In its latest move to push international expansion, Alibaba has joined hands with SoftBank Corp the Japan-based telecom subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp, to launch cloud computing solutions in Japan.

According to commentators, the move points to Alibaba Group Holding Limited's aggressive strategy of expanding its cloud presence beyond its China stronghold.

The two companies have launched a joint-venture cloud services company called SB Cloud Corporation, aimed at the competitive cloud computing market in Japan.

Under the partnership, SB Cloud would open a data centre in Japan and offer Alibaba's cloud security services, data storage and processing solutions, and enterprise middleware offerings to various companies ranging from startups to multinationals.

Alibaba, on its part would be able to access SoftBank's existing Japanese business customer base which includes several global organisations.

Alibaba did not disclose the financial terms of the deal but indicated that most of the allotted funds would be spent initially on the data centre.

Vice president of Alibaba Cloud Sicheng Yu said, ''We are proud that AlibabaCloud can leverage its cloud computing expertise in the joint venture with SoftBank, www.zacks.com reported. We look forward to helping more Japanese companies grow their business with our secure, scalable and innovative cloud computing services.''

According to SB Cloud CEO Eric Gan, who is also executive vice president of SoftBank, a major shareholder of Alibaba, the companies had been working on the joint venture for several months prior to the announcement on yesterday.

"I believe the JV team can develop the most advanced cloud platform for Japanese customers, as well as for multinational customers who want to use the resources we have available in Japan," Gan, Zdnet reported.

"Our focus on long-term strategic priorities -- globalisation, rural expansion, building a world-class cloud computing business, and creating a comprehensive media and entertainment platform -- has laid a strong foundation for future growth," Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group CEO, said.