While a major hyperscaler in Asia, its high-performance, modern GPU offerings (H100/B200) are not readily available for testing in most public regions, with a primary focus on the Chinese domestic market.
Alibaba Cloud’s managed Kubernetes service is called Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK). ACK provides a fully managed solution where Alibaba Cloud handles the control plane (master nodes), which are critical for the cluster’s operation. You only need to create and manage the worker nodes. This simplifies the deployment and maintenance of Kubernetes clusters. ACK supports various node types, including those with heterogeneous computing resources like GPUs, making it suitable for a wide range of workloads, especially for AI and machine learning.
Alibaba Cloud also provides a managed Slurm solution as part of its Elastic High Performance Computing (E-HPC) service. E-HPC is a platform that simplifies the deployment and management of high-performance computing clusters. It also includes a Slurm on Kubernetes solution, which uses a dedicated operator to deploy and manage Slurm clusters within ACK.
Source: not much GPU selection in the Chinese availability zones
In our datacenter model, we have covered Alibaba’s expansion globally across Thailand, Mexico, SK, Malaysia, and Philippines. There is also a new datacenter in Brazil being built, as ByteDance is looking to add $10B there, Huawei Cloud is looking to build a 4th datacenter there, and Tencent also plans expansion into South America. Notably, Didi, AliExpress, Shein and many Chinese automakers are expanding to Brazil too. Alibaba Cloud is getting in at the ground floor, helping build Brazil’s AI industry from the ground up.
In the future we are very interested in testing the Alibaba Cloud experience. It seems clear that the software console is sophisticated, and proven at scale by some of the world’s largest AI companies. We will be tracking this neocloud’s posture with respect to geopolitics closely over time.