Alibaba Cloud EMEA distribution deal rounds out Europe expansion

Alibaba Cloud solidifies European expansion amid surging cloud revenues

Arrow Electronics has penned a distribution deal with Alibaba Cloud that will see the company distribute the Chinese cloud giant’s full suite of cloud services across EMEA and become the UK’s sole Alibaba Cloud distributor.

Alibaba Cloud dominates China’s $14bn cloud market and has had its eyes on Europe for some time — a market that IDC predicts to grow at a 22 percent rate for the next three years. Last year, the company launched two London data centres and has been forging partner relationships across EMEA since.

It was first reported in November that Alibaba Cloud was on the hunt for a pan-European partnership. With this announcement, it appears the company’s search is over.

Speaking on the deal, Alexis Brabant, vice president sales of Arrow`s enterprise computing solutions business in EMEA, said the agreement will open up opportunities for channel players in the EMEA market.

“As we are moving into the world of multicloud, our clients can now choose from an even broader range and variety of solutions and services tailored to their end-customer`s needs,” he added.

Max Tao, senior manager of alliance, Alibaba Cloud International, said Alibaba Cloud will benefit from Arrow’s cloud enablement capabilities and local expertise.

“We will work together to help more regional and local channel companies start their journey into cloud and data intelligence,” he added.

Alibaba Cloud currently operates 61 availability zones in 20 regions worldwide, including data centres in Mainland China, Germany and the UK. Last quarter, Alibaba reported a 66 percent increase in cloud revenues.