Alibaba in talks with BT for cloud partnership in Europe push
An alliance with BT’s information technology services division would enable Alibaba Cloud, the world’s fourth-biggest provider of cloud infrastructure and related services, to challenge Amazon Web Services in Europe
Alibaba Group Holding is in talks with BT Group about a cloud services partnership, as the Chinese internet giant challenges the dominance of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Europe.
An agreement between Alibaba and the information technology consulting unit of Britain’s former telecommunications monopoly could be similar to Alibaba’s existing arrangement with Vodafone Group in Germany, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private.
A BT spokeswoman confirmed by email that the British telecoms company is in talks with Alibaba Cloud, New York-listed Alibaba’s cloud computing arm, but declined to give details. A spokesman for Alibaba declined to comment.
Started in 2009, Alibaba Cloud has expanded fast beyond China in a direct challenge to AWS, the cloud computing division of US e-commerce company Amazon. Alibaba Cloud is now the fourth-biggest global provider of cloud infrastructure and related services, behind AWS, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet’s Google, according to a report last month by Synergy Research Group.
Europe has become key to Alibaba Cloud’s success outside China, with prospects in the US made murky by President Donald Trump’s America First agenda. Alibaba has pulled back in the US just as tensions between America and China have escalated under Trump.
Alibaba started the German partnership with Vodafone in 2016. Based in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China, Alibaba put its first European data centre in Frankfurt, Germany, allowing Vodafone to resell Alibaba Cloud services such as data storage and analytics.
