Selina Yuan (Alibaba Cloud International)
Alibaba Cloud has launched 10 new products and features for the first time outside of China, including a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) accelerator from Singapore.
The accelerator has been designed to help technology partners build and launch SaaS applications in a matter of days rather than weeks.
According to the Chinese giant, the program targets small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) that account for the majority of business across ASEAN.
The accelerator can be used by SMEs to connect to Alibaba Cloud’s ecosystem through a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs), including payment gateways while leveraging the provider's e-commerce platform.
Leveraging a "drag-and-pull" framework, the accelerator aiso aims to reduce complexity and coding workloads for SMEs, which is a major contributor to time saved during the application development phase.
Furthermore, the offering enables ecosystem partners, such as enterprises in the e-commerce, lodging, and travel industries, to quickly reach their customers on Alibaba platforms. It also defines three centres for the SaaS ecosystem: the commercial centre, the capability centre, and the technology centre.
"As the largest public cloud provider in Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud is speeding up digital transformation in this region by building a world-class cloud infrastructure and we have also been at the forefront of the rapid development of data intelligence,” said Selina Yuan, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International.
“Today, Alibaba Cloud not only provides infrastructure that underpins the entire Alibaba economy from e-commerce and payment, to logistics and supply chain management, but also ensures inclusiveness, so that our cloud technologies can be accessed by companies of all sizes.
“We are committed to providing the Asia Pacific region with a cloud service that will drive a highly integrated, best-in-class technology ecosystem."
Some of the other products announced include database enhancements, an Alibaba Log Service (SLS), support of ‘Bring Your Own Key’ (BYOK), Smart Access Gateway (SAG) Software, Container Registry (ACR) Enterprise Edition, and Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK).
The cloud provider also launched an upgraded service support campaign designed SMEs allowing customers to benefit from greater access to resources and support from Alibaba Cloud.
Key benefits of the enhanced support and service include dedicated one-on-one presale consultations, 24/7 technical support, a doubling of complementary tech support tickets and swifter after-sales support.
The provider also announced the availability of its China Gateway initiative for Singapore SMEs in collaboration with eight local partners, designed to help local companies easier access to the Chinese market.
