Alibaba Cloud outlines $1bn investment in partner ecosystem

Alibaba Cloud has indicated it is putting serious money into supporting its partner ecosystem as it outlines its international ambitions.

The cloud giant has been using its 2022 Alibaba Cloud Summit to update its plans to grow the enterprise business and has used it as a forum to outline plans to spend $1bn on a global partner system upgrade.

That billion will be spent to support partner growth over the next three fiscal years and will include financial and non-financial support, including funding, rebates and go-to-market initiatives.

The firm has launched a Regional Accelerator to make sure its efforts are targeted and that it can make sure it has the right levels of technical and vertical support, depending on the needs of the local market.

The firm emphasises that all of its partners, which include resellers, ISVs, system integrators and SaaS players as well as service and consultancy specialists, will benefit from the investment.

“Partners have always been a key focus for Alibaba Cloud, and we are committed to providing them with strong support for our ongoing co-creation and value-add – both technologically and commercially – to further empower our joined customers,” said Selina Yuan, intelligence international president at Alibaba Cloud.

“Our revamped partner strategy prioritises our partners’ growth. By continuing to support our partners’ business expansion, we can build an inclusive ecosystem benefiting partners and customers.”

Alibaba Cloud is also looking to make it easier for ISVs to work with the firm with more industry collaboration and a standardised go-to-market process. There is also an ambition to increase the software developer numbers, particularly in key verticals including financial services, retail, internet and manufacturing.

At the same time, Alibaba Cloud is also looking to attract more customers and used its Summit to talk up its offerings, with Cloud Enterprise Network 2.0 and the storage products ESSD Auto PL to show it had the tools to take on enterprise networks and data.

The event also covered updates to technology around containers and the increased support that would be available to those choosing to operate in a hybrid cloud environment.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the hyperscaler world, AWS was providing updates for its channel, with a fresh competency rolled out to those in its Partner Network.

The cloud player has launched the Smart City Competency for public sector customers looking for help in delivering their projects in that area.

AWS launched this with a handful of partners, sadly none in the UK, and more can sign up if they are prepared to go through a review of their delivery model and technical skills, as well as being able to demonstrate customer success in the form of case studies.

Those who get the competency will be helping users to grapple with issues such as energy and water use, traffic management, sanitation and sustainability.