Alibaba Cloud debuts cloud-powered laptop

Alibaba Cloud has launched a cloud-powered laptop that will enable mobile workers to crunch compute-intensive workloads while on the go.

Called the Wuying Cloudbook, the ultra-thin laptop features a 14-inch touchscreen and is being powered by Alibaba Cloud’s Wuying desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) architecture that lets users consume compute and storage resources on the cloud as when they need.

The Chinese cloud supplier said this will help to alleviate capacity restrictions of running large-scale applications on local machines, such as video-rendering software, and provide users with a real-time interactive experience.

Effectively a thin-client machine, the Wuying Cloudbook will also help to address the security challenges in enterprise environments, such as data loss and local device vulnerabilities, while allowing users to access organisational resources remotely.

Users will also get to run multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Android, on the same device simultaneously.

“The Wuying architecture is a powerful extension and expansion of the workplace,” said Jiangwei Jiang, senior researcher and general manager of infrastructure products at Alibaba Cloud. “Taking advantage of cloud-based data security capabilities and tools, Wuying provides additional assurance to safeguarding corporate information security.”

China’s IM Motors, an electric vehicle company, is the first in the automobile industry to adopt the Wuying Cloudbook in product design. With the Wuying laptop, its research and development teams have been able to collaborate across multiple locations.

“The automobile industry traditionally relied heavily on offline collaboration, as large-scale workstations were necessary for many work processes,” said Jiao Xiang, executive director of intelligence research centre at IM Motors.

Xiang said not only does the Wuying laptop offer the necessary compute power to support compute-intensive workloads, “it eases our anxiety around data security when transmitting and sharing confidential design files, allowing us to focus our attention on the design itself”.

The Wuying Cloudbook follows the earlier launch of its Wuying desktop computer in Singapore in March 2022, the first time palm-sized device is available outside of China.

All connectivity and storage will be managed by Alibaba Cloud, which is looking to target organisations performing medical research and financial modelling as well as oil and gas simulations, among other use cases.