Alibaba Cloud expands offerings for EMEA partners

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and data intelligence arm of Alibaba Group, says that an additional nine partners have joined its EMEA Ecosystem Partner Program. Introduced last year, the program was developed to strengthen the collaboration between Alibaba Cloud’s customers and partners in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Alibaba Cloud has also furthered its commitment in nurturing young talents in cloud computing and big data by partnering with French local universities. The announcements were made at Alibaba Cloud’s Partner Ecosystem Summit, held during the VivaTech show in Paris.

The new partners on board of the program include Cloud Temple, Equinix, EVA Group, Groupe Cyllene, GTI Software & Networking, PROJIXI Europe, SKALE-5, SMILE, and Xebia. By partnering with Alibaba Cloud, together they can facilitate the digital transformation of companies in the EMEA region, especially those in the retail sector by leveraging Alibaba Group’s expertise in e-commerce, logistics and New Retail. Furthermore, the partners will be able to tap into the company’s business success and market insights in order to expand their presence in China under the “China Gateway” initiative.

“We believe in leveraging our partners’ strengths to create a strong ecosystem for technologies and solution offerings,” said Yeming Wang, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud EMEA. “By offering our state-of-the art cloud infrastructure and advanced data intelligence services, together with our partners, we hope to accelerate companies’ digital transformation, and help them succeed globally in markets especially in China.”

Existing EMEA ecosystem partners include companies such as Linkbynet, Ecritel, Micropole, and Intel who joined the program last year. They were not alone in identifying the benefits of partnering with Alibaba Cloud; Gartner named Alibaba Cloud third globally for IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and IUS (Infrastructure Utility Services), and the first in Asia Pacific in the same space.

With an eye to nurturing future workplace talent, Alibaba Cloud has also teamed up with local universities in France. In addition to partnering with Telecom ParisTech last year to introduce cloud computing and big data training for its students, this year, Alibaba Cloud announced its partnership with SUPINFO International University, institute of information technology and computer sciences created in Paris in 1965 and with over 30 campuses worldwide. The parties will collaborate closely on matters relating to course design, certification training, IT infrastructure building and cross border connectivity.

“We are pleased to partner with Alibaba Cloud to have our students equipped with useful knowledge on cloud computing technologies, especially in its applications. We believe in empowering students through learning and together with Alibaba Cloud, we can bring the best designed practical courses to them. We want to offer a rich technology test bed for students to experiment different skills in order to prepare them to solve real-life challenges upon graduation,” said Alick MOURIESSE, President of SUPINFO International University.

“Through the collaborations with local universities, Alibaba Cloud can bring our knowledge in cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence to students in France, which is essential to improving their competitive advantages in the workplace,” said Kevin Liu, Country Manager, Alibaba Cloud France & South Europe. “The partnership with SUPINFO following the tie up with Telecom ParisTech further demonstrated our commitment to France and our contributions to talent development.”

In addition to its presence at VivaTech in France, Alibaba Cloud will also host its Partner Ecosystem Summit in UK and Germany in June, with the aim of attracting more participants to its EMEA Ecosystem Partner Program.