Alibaba Cloud unveils eight new technology solutions for Europe at MWC

Alibaba's cloud computing arm has thrown the gauntlet down to Amazon and Microsoft by introducing several services to Europe for the first time.

Demonstrated at this week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Alibaba Cloud's eight new products centre around Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI) and other infrastructure, security and private cloud solutions.

Launched in Europe following success in home markets, Alibaba Cloud will hope its offerings help it to challenge Amazon and Microsoft's respective Web Services and Azure platforms, as well as specialist cloud providers such as Rackspace and OVH.

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"Alibaba Cloud wants to be an enabler for technology innovation in Europe helping enterprises do business," said Yeming Wang, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Europe.

"The decision making around how a business is to operate in the digital age is increasingly a strategic one. To meet their changing needs, we are able to leverage our practical experience of digital transformation and successes accumulated in China to the benefit of European enterprises."

Alibaba Cloud, founded in 2009, has become China's largest provider of public cloud services, helping firms through their digital transformation strategies. Its current partners in Europe include the likes of Vodafone's German business and the Met Office, the United Kingdom's national meteorological service.