Cloud Provider
Alibaba Cloud
The gateway to Asia. The only real option for China.
Alibaba Cloud is the cloud backbone of China's internet economy — powering Alibaba, Taobao, AliExpress, and millions of businesses across Asia. For companies expanding into China or the broader Asia-Pacific market, it is the essential infrastructure layer that no Western cloud can replicate.
89
Availability zones
200+
Cloud products
#1
Cloud provider in APAC
Advantages
The only real option for China
AWS and Azure operate in China only via local joint ventures with heavy restrictions and regulatory delays. Alibaba Cloud is the native infrastructure for businesses serving Chinese users — no joint venture, no compliance workarounds.
Best APAC performance
Best-in-class latency across mainland China, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, and Australia. Extensive CDN PoPs and a robust Alibaba-owned network across the region.
E-commerce and traffic spike expertise
Battle-tested annually during Singles Day (11/11) — the world's largest shopping event, processing millions of transactions per second. Elastic scaling for extreme traffic spikes is core to its design.
Competitive pricing in Asian regions
Significantly cheaper than AWS/Azure/GCP for workloads running in Asian regions. Strong reserved instance and savings plan discounts for committed usage.
Broad Asia-specific service catalog
Over 200 cloud products including e-commerce-specific tools, payment processing integrations, and Chinese regulation-compliant services not found on Western clouds.
Disadvantages
English documentation quality
English documentation is often a translation of Chinese docs and can be incomplete, outdated, or contain inconsistencies. Budget extra time for research and plan for trial-and-error.
Data compliance concerns in some markets
Some European and US organisations have internal policies or regulatory requirements that restrict use of Alibaba Cloud due to data residency and geopolitical considerations.
Limited global footprint outside Asia
Outside Asia-Pacific, region coverage is limited. Not competitive with AWS or Azure for workloads that need truly global distribution from Europe or North America.
English-language ecosystem is smaller
Community resources, partner ecosystems, and support are primarily Chinese-first. English-language expertise and certified professionals are far rarer than for AWS or Azure.
Typical use cases
- 1Products targeting mainland China or other Asian markets
- 2Cross-border e-commerce platforms between China and global markets
- 3APAC content delivery, media streaming, and gaming
- 4Manufacturing and supply chain companies with Chinese production operations
- 5Global companies needing a regional cloud hub in Southeast Asia or China
Best for
Companies with business operations in China or Southeast Asia, cross-border e-commerce, and any organisation that needs to serve Chinese users at scale with compliant, low-latency infrastructure.
How we work with Alibaba Cloud
We design, deploy, and operate Alibaba Cloud infrastructure for startups and scaling teams — from initial architecture to production Kubernetes clusters, cost optimisation, and 24/7 monitoring.
Book a free architecture reviewReady to build on Alibaba Cloud?
We handle architecture, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and operations so your team focuses on product.