Amazon taps into China's cloud computing market

Want China Times, Yeh Wen-yi and Staff Reporter 2013-12-22

Amazon logos are displayed on laptop computers in Washington DC,
Oct. 23. (Photo/CFP)

US retail giant Amazon will set up a data center to pilot its cloud computing services in collaboration with enterprises in China in early 2014.

Since 2006, Amazon had been using its experience in e-commerce sales to launch its cloud computing services, namely Amazon Web Services, and has now become the largest service supplier in the sector.

Hundreds of thousands of companies in 190 countries around the world use Amazon's platform at present. China is the tenth country globally and the fourth in Asia in which an Amazon data center will be built.

In the meantime, Amazon has signed a letter of intent with Beijing and Ningxia to deliver the cities' public services.

In addition to its partnership with Beijing and Ningxia, Amazon has also formed an alliance with Sinnet and China Net Center. The two Chinese companies will provide the necessary internet data center services (IDC) and an internet service provider (ISP) for Amazon's public cloud computing services.

The collaboration is a result of regulations formulated by the Chinese government.

Amazon stated that there were several thousand Chinese firms adopting Amazon's public cloud computing platform, including Xiaomi and Qihoo 360.

Chinese firms have also announced plans for their cloud computing platforms in response to Amazon's move.

According to the Shanghai-based China Business News, following Amazon's announcement of its intentions to use its public cloud computing platform in China, IBM and Alibaba also released their plans for cloud computing projects in the country.

Alibaba Cloud Computing or AliCoud even proposed to offer a 20%-50% discount for its services, including for its cloud servers and internet data center.

In addition, IBM and Lenovo announced their partnership with other firms in the cloud computing arena.

Lenovo will use Microsoft's services, such as Windows Server and Windows Azure, while IBM said that it will work with 21Vianet Group, a China-based carrier-neutral internet data center operator.

Tencent's cloud storage services will also offer considerable discounts for its services.

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