Alibaba
Hyperscaler IaaSUnified vendor intelligence profile: on-demand pricing coverage, global infrastructure footprint, security certifications, and independent FinOps benchmarks.
Independent Analyst Positioning & Industry Evaluations
The Forrester Wave™: AI Infrastructure Solutions (Q4 2025)
Recognized for cloud-native elastic compute (ECS), PolarDB/ApsaraDB database innovation, dominant Asia-Pacific infrastructure footprint, and open-weight Qwen foundation models in Model Studio.
Head-to-Head Comparisons Featuring Alibaba
Alibaba Cloud is 15% to 35% cheaper than AWS across standard compute and database instances, offering unbeatable regional pricing and compliance advantages throughout China and Southeast Asia.
Alibaba Cloud provides 20% to 35% lower compute and storage costs across Asian regions, while Microsoft Azure offers unmatched global enterprise compliance and Windows/SQL licensing benefits.
Datacenter Footprint & Regional Availability
Audited Region Directory (25 Total)
| Region Name | Code | Geography | AZs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China (Hangzhou) | cn-hangzhou | Asia Pacific | 6 | available |
| China (Shanghai) | cn-shanghai | Asia Pacific | 8 | available |
| China (Beijing) | cn-beijing | Asia Pacific | 6 | available |
| China (Shenzhen) | cn-shenzhen | Asia Pacific | 4 | available |
| China (Chengdu) | cn-chengdu | Asia Pacific | 2 | available |
| China (Heyuan) | cn-heyuan | Asia Pacific | 2 | available |
| China (Wulanchabu) | cn-wulanchabu | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| China (Hong Kong) | cn-hongkong | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| Singapore | ap-southeast-1 | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | ap-southeast-3 | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| Malaysia (Johor) | ap-southeast-9 | Asia Pacific | 2 | available |
| Indonesia (Jakarta) | ap-southeast-5 | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| Philippines (Manila) | ap-southeast-6 | Asia Pacific | 2 | available |
| Thailand (Bangkok) | ap-southeast-7 | Asia Pacific | 2 | available |
| Japan (Tokyo) | ap-northeast-1 | Asia Pacific | 5 | available |
| South Korea (Seoul) | ap-northeast-2 | Asia Pacific | 2 | available |
| India (Mumbai) | ap-south-1 | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| US East (Virginia) | us-east-1 | North America | 3 | available |
| US West (Silicon Valley) | us-west-1 | North America | 3 | available |
| Germany (Frankfurt) | eu-central-1 | Europe | 3 | available |
| UK (London) | eu-west-1 | Europe | 3 | available |
| France (Paris) | eu-west-2 | Europe | 2 | available |
| Australia (Sydney) | ap-southeast-2 | Asia Pacific | 3 | available |
| UAE (Dubai) | me-east-1 | Middle East & Africa | 2 | available |
| Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | me-central-1 | Middle East & Africa | 2 | available |
Security & Regulatory Compliance Standards (15)
Audited certifications verified against official trust centers, SOC registries, and compliance documentation.
Recent Alibaba Announcements & Model Releases
Qwen-Max 2.5 & Qwen 2.5 Coder flagship model upgrades in Model Studio
Alibaba Cloud releases significant updates to the Qwen-Max language model and Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B, improving mathematical reasoning and multi-turn coding execution.
Alibaba Cloud releases open-weights Qwen 2 family across 5 model sizes
Alibaba Cloud open-sources Qwen 2 (0.5B to 72B), achieving state-of-the-art open-weights benchmarks in mathematics and multi-lingual coding.
Alibaba Cloud releases Tongyi Qianwen enterprise suite and Model Studio API
Alibaba Cloud launches Model Studio for enterprise generative AI fine-tuning, retrieval augmentation, and agent orchestration across APAC regions.
Compare Alibaba Against Alternative Clouds
Run zero-IAM workload assessments or transpile your Terraform blueprints between Alibaba and competing clouds.