Alibaba Cloud launches three hyperscale data centers in China
Alibaba Cloud has added three more hyperscale data centers to its portfolio in China, bringing its total number of facilities in the area to five - with at least 10 more planned in the coming years.
The new data centers are located in Hangzhou, Nantong (in the Jiangsu Province), and Ulanqab (in Inner Mongolia).
The company states that the three new facilities have deployed Alibaba Cloud's self-developed technologies such as the X-dragon architecture, the Hanguang 800 AI inference chip, and the Apsara Distributed Operating System. These technologies will deliver 'hyperscale computing as well as robust and scalable application and intelligent services'.
The Hangzhou data center is also equipped with what Alibaba Cloud calls 'one of the world's largest' server clusters that are submerged in liquid coolant. The coolant keeps IT hardware chilled and reduces energy consumption by more than 70%.
Additionally, the data center's power usage effectiveness (PUE) is almost equal to 1.0, which means that almost all energy is used for computing.
In the Nantong data center, Alibaba Cloud leverages its uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solution to improve electricity usage efficiency. It also uses intelligent robots to automate monitoring and maintenance tasks.
The Ulanqab data center will leverage the free-air cooling system – particularly in winter where temperatures can drop to -22 degrees Celsius. This means there is no requirement for additional machine-powered cooling for 10 months of the entire year.
Alibaba Cloud also runs two hyperscale data centers in Zhangbei and Heyuan in China. These facilities supported Alibaba's Global Shopping Festival, an online sales event.
"Moving forward, Alibaba Cloud is planning to build at least 10 more hyperscale data centers in China during the coming years. This underpins its ambitions to provide trusting computing resources, as well as intelligent industrial solutions, to support the digital shift among businesses in the post-pandemic world," the company states.
Alibaba Cloud will invest 200 billion yuan (US$28 billion) in the next three years to help build the next-generation cloud infrastructure to support global clients with their accelerated digital transformation needs.
Alibaba Cloud was recently named a strong performer for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketplace offerings, according to the Forrester New Wave SaaS Marketplaces, Q2 2020 report.
"We are delighted that our strategy to nurture SaaS partners to grow with Alibaba Cloud is seeing results," says Alibaba Group VP Lancelot Guo.
Alibaba Cloud has data centers in 63 availability zones across 21 regions, serving millions of customers across the globe. It has more than 70 security and compliance accreditations worldwide.
