A L I B A B A
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AI = Actionable Spearheading meaningful change through its ET Brains and advocating cooperation via the Tech for Change initiative, Alibaba Cloud is empowering progressive perceptions across a vast swathe of industries Writer: Jonathan Dyble
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he technological landscape has exploded in recent times, as the exponential rise of startups, innovation and R&D have pushed Industry 4.0 into full swing. With this has come a new wave of technological glitz and glamour. Be it digital transformation, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality or machine learning, technology has developed a kind of sexiness; an exotic, mysterious aura. Not so long ago, cloud computing was painted with this same brush. Having slipped out of the limelight in recent years, paving the way for the likes of blockchain, 5G and biometrics to take centre stage, cloud computing has taken a behind the scenes role in facilitating transformation. To underestimate its potential, however, would be naïve. In fact, having quietly consolidated, cloud computing can now be
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considered as a behemoth technology empowering enterprise success. “At Alibaba Cloud, we believe that cloud is the key technology in the digital era,” states Selina Yuan, Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International. “The scope for transformation is almost unimaginable. We have seen so many business practices founded in the cloud that have rocked established industries, constantly changing how we learn, work, shop, travel and consume media.” An industry veteran with more than 20 years’ experience in the field, cloud computing has become Yuan’s passion for this very reason. “Instead of thinking whether or not they need to embrace the cloud, companies thriving in the era of digital transformation are already thinking
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how they can use it to optimise their business,” she continues. “It is by thinking outside the box that we believe the cloud can sooth bigger, organisation-wide pain-points rather than just siloed IT issues.”
Thinking big
As its name might suggest, Alibaba Cloud has been the perfect workplace platform for Yuan’s cloud-centric ambitions and passion to flourish. The cloud computing arm of one of the world’s largest ecommerce companies and a top three sectorbased service provider (according to Gartner), the firm has become a market leader in one-stop shop solutions to face and tackle digitalisation challenges across multiple sectors. A core part of this ever-growing portfolio comes in the form of the Alibaba Cloud ET Brains. From its ET City Brain, ET Medical Brain and ET Industrial brain to the ET Environment Brain and ET Agricultural Brain, each of these separate,