Alibaba Cloud opens data center in Korea

Unique Song, Regional General Manager for Japan and Korea at Alibaba Cloud, announces the opening of a data center in Korea in an online ceremony Wednesday. [ALIBABA CLOUD]

Alibaba Cloud, the digital tech subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, held an opening ceremony for its first data center in Korea Wednesday.

“We have launched the Korean data center to meet the needs of Korean clients in their digital transformation,” Unique Song, Alibaba Cloud's Regional General Manager for Japan and Korea, said in a press release.

The center will centralize Alibaba Cloud’s technology in cloud computing, network, storage, security and database, the company said. It is located in Seoul.

The company emphasized the safety of its technology. It received 80 certifications from around the world that meets the highest cyber security compliance standards, including the European Union’s.

In addition to the data center, Alibaba Cloud will offer training programs for 2,000 tech professionals in Korea to help corporate clients struggling with a shortage of tech experts, the company said.

“South Korea is a strategic market for Alibaba Cloud and we are building the new data center to address the increasing demand for cloud infrastructure services from local clients,” Song said.

“Together with our global data network, we will continue to help our South Korean customers heighten their pace of digital transformation and global expansion through the latest cloud computing technologies and ecosystem support.”

Alibaba Cloud operates 82 "availability zones," which refers to areas that are covered by a data center, in 26 regions around the world.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]