Alibaba Cloud

What Alibaba Cloud does

Founded in 2009, Alibaba Cloud is a leading cloud computing and artificial intelligence company. Leveraging its proprietary Apsara Cloud operating system, Alibaba Cloud offers a comprehensive suite of cloud services based on a three-tiered architecture of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) to customers worldwide. Alibaba Cloud is the largest provider of public cloud services in China and Asia Pacific. With its large scale and strong foundation in IaaS and PaaS infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud provides enterprises with high-performance and low-cost computing resources, and platform services for large-scale model training, fine-tuning, and inference. Alibaba Cloud aspires to become the most open cloud computing company in the AI era. Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary LLM Qwen is one of the world’s leading LLMs, and has open-sourced Qwens.

Products

• Apsara CloudProprietary operating system for cloud services.
• QwenProprietary Large Language Model (LLM).
• ECS (Elastic Compute Service)Elastic and secure virtual cloud servers for cloud hosting needs, offering advanced computing performance, high availability, and elasticity.
• SAS (Simple Application Server)Provides common website construction application templates for building business websites like official websites, information websites, blogs, forums, and e-commerce platforms.
• Model StudioPlatform for model training, fine-tuning, and inference, including access to models like Qwen3.7-Plus.
• DatabaseCloud database services, including ApsaraDB for OceanBase.
• SecurityCloud security products and services, including Web Application Firewall and Sensitive Data Discovery and Protection.
• SMSCloud service (specifics not detailed beyond acronym).
• QwenCloudCloud service related to the Qwen LLM.
• Quick BICore data analytics product.
• Cloud ConfigA configuration audit service that helps achieve compliance of resource configurations.
• Short Video SDKSoftware development kit for short video functionalities.

Key capabilities

• Proprietary Apsara Cloud operating system
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Model-as-a-Service (MaaS)
• High-performance and low-cost computing resources
• Platform services for large-scale model training, fine-tuning, and inference
• Proprietary LLM Qwen
• Open-sourced Qwens
• Elastic and secure virtual cloud servers (ECS)
• Advanced computing performance (ECS)
• High availability (ECS)
• Elasticity (ECS)
• Flexible billing methods (ECS)
• Global deployment (ECS)
• Website construction application templates (SAS)
• AI-powered solutions for streamlined and personalized customer journeys (Retail)
• 24/7 AI services that feel human (Retail)
• Personalized recommendations at scale (Retail)
• Immersive visual content (Retail)
• Unified customer view (Retail)
• Robust, high-performance cloud infrastructure with 99.995% availability SLA
• Auto-scaling compute resources
• Enterprise-grade security
• Global data center coverage across 30 regions
• Context and emotion understanding through long context understanding and multimodal analysis (Qwen-powered services)
• AI-generated visual content
• Unified Customer Data Platform (CDP)
• Content Protection (Media Services)
• Multiple Functions (Media Services)
• Smooth and Stable Playback Services (Media Services)
• Media Storage (Media Services)
• Content Management (Media Services)
• Online Editing (Media Services)
• Cloud auditing and monitoring tool for continuous and automatic security checks
• Sensitive Data Discovery and Protection
• Compliance Repository

Use cases

• Large-scale model training
• Model fine-tuning
• Model inference
• Cloud hosting
• Powering cloud applications
• Building business websites (official websites, information websites, blogs, forums, e-commerce platforms)
• Financial services solutions
• Retail services solutions
• Media services solutions
• Gaming services solutions
• ISV solutions
• Crowd management and reducing waiting time (Virtual Queue Solution)
• Supporting transactions, payments, and accounts (ApsaraDB for OceanBase for Alipay)
• Credit risk management
• SAP on Alibaba Cloud
• Hybrid Cloud
• Streamlining and personalizing customer journeys in retail
• 24/7 intelligent customer service
• Precision marketing
• Automated content generation
• Creating compelling product impressions with AI-generated visuals
• Unifying customer insights from various channels
• Running retail operations
• Digitalizing content for the media market
• Security compliance and regulatory adherence
• Configuration auditing

AI approach

Alibaba Cloud is a leading cloud computing and artificial intelligence company that leverages its proprietary Apsara Cloud operating system. It offers a comprehensive suite of cloud services based on IaaS, PaaS, and MaaS, providing high-performance and low-cost computing resources and platform services for large-scale model training, fine-tuning, and inference. Alibaba Cloud's proprietary LLM Qwen is a leading LLM, and they have open-sourced Qwen. They are positioned as a leader in Cloud AI Infrastructure and MaaS, and their AI-powered solutions are used in various industries like retail for intelligent customer experiences, personalized recommendations, and 24/7 AI services.

Tech named: Apsara Cloud operating system, IaaS, PaaS, MaaS, LLM Qwen, QwenCloud, Model Studio, AI-powered solutions, AI-generated visual content, AI-enhanced, API-first CPaaS platform, AI-native cloud security, Quick BI, Agentic AI Cloud, AI Coding Agents, Virtual Queue Solution leverages Artificial Intelligence and integrates five algorithm modules

Industries served

• IT System Custom Software Development
• Financial Services
• Retail
• Media
• Gaming
• Hospitality
• Enterprise
• Public Sector

What it says sets it apart

• Largest provider of public cloud services in China and Asia Pacific
• Proprietary Apsara Cloud operating system
• Proprietary LLM Qwen, one of the world’s leading LLMs
• Open-sourced Qwens
• High SLA commitment for ECS (99.975% for individual instances, 99.995% for multiple zones)
• Experience running infrastructure at large scale, supporting major e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Tmall
• Investment in R&D, including X-Dragon compute platform, self-developed SOC, hardware acceleration card, and Dragonfly lightweight hypervisor
• Sophisticated smart placement algorithm, dynamic and automatic planning, and optimization of hardware and software for elasticity
• Expertise in China Compliance, offering a full suite of China security compliance solutions
• Enabler in Cloud Compliance with auditing and monitoring tools
• Strong in Regulatory Compliance in Southeast Asia, especially for the financial services sector
• Access to Alibaba's e-commerce expertise and technology, proven in one of the world's largest retail ecosystems
• Ability to deploy the same AI and infrastructure that power Tmall and Taobao
• Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud AI Infrastructure
• Leader in Omdia Market Radar: Agentic AI Cloud Titans in Asia & Oceania, 2026
• Leader in The Forrester Wave™: AI Infrastructure Solutions, Q4 2025
• Leader in Omdia Market Radar: Global Enterprise-level MaaS 2025
• Leader in Forrester Wave™: AI Platforms in China, Q4 2025