ALIBABA Group’s digital technology and intelligence backbone Alibaba Cloud is set to build its first data center in the Philippines by the end of 2021.

“With our first data center in the country, we will be able to better support Philippine enterprises in adopting cloud technologies and preparing for a digital-first future,” said Leo Liu, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence general manager for Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines, at a virtual briefing on Tuesday.

The company intends to support 50,000 local information technology professionals and help 5,000 Philippine businesses in their digital transformation journey by 2023.

“To achieve this target, we have been working on multiple initiatives such as increasing our local infrastructure cloud investments… and we will introduce more advance cloud products and solutions,” Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Country Manager for the Philippines Allen Guo said.

Alibaba Cloud plans to invest $1 billion in Asia-Pacific over the next three years as it targets to foster one million digital talents, empower 100,000 developers, and accelerate the growth of 100,000 technology startups in the region.

Its new data center in the Philippines will be built in Manila, bringing the company’s total availability zones to 76 spread across 25 regions globally.

“Local businesses across sectors such as financial technology, e-commerce, education and media will be able to adopt and implement cloud technologies more efficiently and better position themselves to capture the emerging opportunities in the country,” the company said.

“To adequately support Philippine businesses’ digitalization, be them conglomerates or one of the country’s vast number of micro, small and medium enterprises, Alibaba cloud has formed partnerships with more than 20 organizations across the retail, healthcare, financial technology, information and communications technology, business process outsourcing, media and education sectors,” it added.

For Mr. Guo, the company’s upcoming data center launch underscores its commitment to equipping Philippine customers with “secure, reliable and scalable cloud solutions.” — Arjay L. Balinbin

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