CLOUD STORAGE
Alibaba Cloud | September 23, 2022
Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has announced its latest international strategic roadmap at the 2022 Alibaba Cloud Summit. During the three-day summit, the trusted cloud provider has revealed new products to support technology innovation among enterprises, an investment of USD1 billion for a global partner ecosystem upgrade, and enhanced customer services to provide comprehensive support throughout a customer's digitalization journey.
Technology innovation to power rapidly increasing cloud consumption
With more enterprises moving to the cloud and an increase in demand for cloud services in a hybrid environment, Alibaba Cloud has made available globally a series of its proven infrastructure products, a multi-model cloud-native database and distributed cloud services. This range of new products aims to provide enterprise customers with a wider scope of cloud services covering network, storage and compute.
Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) 2.0, the newly available network services, provides global intelligent networking to support enterprises' global expansion. CEN 2.0 supports ultra-large-scale networking capabilities with higher availability, lower latency, enhanced security capability and greater flexibility in pricing options for enterprises, compared to the previous version.
Alibaba Cloud has also unveiled a storage product called ESSD Auto PL, which provides block storage services and supports automatic scaling within seconds to allow businesses to handle sudden traffic surges. As the world's leading elastic block storage product with auto-scaling function, it offers up to one million IOPS (input/output operations per second), significantly higher than the industry average.
Lindorm, the cloud-native multi-model database developed by Alibaba Cloud, successfully supported Alibaba Group's 11.11, the world's largest shopping festival, last year. Designed for fusion-processing requirements for wide tables, time series, space-time and various unstructured data, Lindorm has also been supporting customers in various industries in China – including automotive, finance and manufacturing – thanks to its high availability and low storage cost.
Alibaba Cloud also introduced ACK One (Alibaba Cloud Distributed Cloud Container Platform), a multi-region and multi-cluster container management platform to provide a consistent management, delivery and operation experience for enterprises. It allows users to implement container cluster management, resource scheduling, data disaster recovery and application delivery through a unified platform, whether in a public cloud, private cloud or on-premise environment. ACK One is the latest addition to ACK Anywhere, Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes. Earlier this year, among the eight significant industry players evaluated, Alibaba Cloud was named a "Leader" in The Forrester Wave™ Public Cloud Container Platforms Q1 2022 for the first time.
Lastly, to support enterprises' need for hybrid cloud, CloudBox integrates Alibaba Cloud's public cloud infrastructure technologies such as compute, storage and network to provide enterprises with fully managed cloud services for deployment close to customers' business premises. CloudBox delivers a consistent experience as Alibaba Cloud's public cloud, while meeting enterprises' demand for on-premise data processing and low latency compute. CloudBox is designed for multinational companies with business operations in China.
Alibaba Cloud has been strengthening its capabilities in computing, storage, network and security. For example, its recently unveiled Cloud Infrastructure Processing Unit (CIPU), a dedicated processing unit designed for its Apsara Cloud operating system, can reduce network latency to as low as five microseconds and improve computing power performance in data-intensive AI and data analytics scenarios by as much as 30%.
Prioritizing partner benefits to build inclusive technology ecosystem
With its revamped ecosystem strategy, Alibaba Cloud has announced that it is committed to investing USD1 billion to support partners' technology innovation and their market expansion with Alibaba Cloud in the coming three fiscal years. This investment consists of both financial and non-financial incentives, such as funding, rebates and go-to-market initiatives.
To accelerate partners' growth, Alibaba Cloud also launched a "Regional Accelerator" program to provide partners operating in different markets with a localized business collaboration model. The model is designed around factors such as a market's level of technical maturity, vertical focus, digitalization needs and business demands, with an aim to boost partners' income and strengthen their technical expertise. Alibaba Cloud ecosystem partners including resellers, technology partners (ISV, SaaS and SI), service and consulting partners can benefit from the program.
"Partners have always been a key focus for Alibaba Cloud, and we are committed to providing them with strong support for our ongoing co-creation and value-add – both technologically and commercially to further empower our joined customers, Our revamped partner strategy prioritizes our partners' growth. By continuing to support our partners' business expansion, we can build an inclusive ecosystem benefiting partners and customers."
Selina Yuan, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International President
To address complications with partners' international business operations, Alibaba Cloud has also upgraded its collaboration model with its ISV partners, with a focus on enhancing industry collaboration, standardizing go-to-market process, and accelerating technical solution integration to increase efficiency. Looking ahead, Alibaba Cloud hopes to recruit more financial services, retail, internet and manufacturing ISVs to co-develop products and support customer innovation.
Alibaba Cloud currently works with about 11,000 partners worldwide, including Salesforce, VMware, Fortinet, IBM and Neo4j.
Empowering customers with comprehensive support
In order to provide all-round cloud-based solutions and services to all customers, Alibaba Cloud also launched a "Global Delivery and Service Program" to enhance the cloud adoption process for customers. Under the program, it has unveiled three Customer Service Centers in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Porto (Portugal), and Mexico City (Mexico), to support customers in their cloud adoption journey, providing timely and regionalized cloud migration and consulting services.
In addition to the Customer Service Centers, Alibaba Cloud has set up three Service Delivery Centers in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Hong Kong (Greater China), to provide extra technology support to its regional offices and customer project delivery in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
Fueling new innovations with reliable infrastructure
During the summit, Alibaba Cloud has inked nearly 30 agreements to help customers and partners accelerate their digital innovation capabilities with leading cloud computing technologies.
In collaboration with JP Games, Japan's leading game development studio, Alibaba Cloud has unveiled a set of new services to create virtual spaces and realistic avatars for global customers venturing into the metaverse.
Together with MetaverseXR, Thailand's leading metaverse company, Alibaba Cloud rolled out a comprehensive suite of metaverse solutions for the Thai market in order to fulfill growing local demand for embarking on a Web 3.0 journey.
Alibaba Cloud also teamed up with UMG Group in Myanmar, to power the country's digital transformation – especially in traditional industries.
With BeLive and VisionTech from Singapore, Alibaba Cloud is expanding its regional outreach in the media and Fintech verticals.
Alibaba Cloud is collaborating with OnFinality, a leading New Zealand-based blockchain infrastructure provider, to offer robust cloud-computing capability and a strong global network for Web 3.0 developers looking to scale globally.
More than 300 Alibaba Cloud customers and partners around the globe are attending the summit, including Accenture, Tiger Brokers, DANA, Thai Data, and Lala station.
About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services. Alibaba maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC. Alibaba is the world's third leading and Asia Pacific's leading IaaS provider by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner.
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CLOUD SECURITY
Tecnotree | September 27, 2022
Tecnotree, a global provider of Business Support Systems (BSS) for the telecoms industry announces it will provide Digital BSS products built on Microsoft Azure to Digital Service Providers (DSPs). Through this integration, service providers will be empowered to innovate and adapt quickly while delivering superior customer experiences.
Tecnotree, a global provider of Business Support Systems (BSS) for the telecoms industry announces it will provide Digital BSS products built on Microsoft Azure to Digital Service Providers (DSPs). Through this integration, service providers will be empowered to innovate and adapt quickly while delivering superior customer experiences.
As 5G and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) reshape the industry landscape, service providers’ IT infrastructure today is more agile & cloud-native along with the underlying applications to support charging, billing & partner functions in a dynamic way. Tecnotree's Digital Suite-5 for consumers and business monetization is built natively to run on Kubernetes and is aligned with the Microsoft Azure cloud to drive multi-tenant, multi-region transformations that allow enterprises to lower total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) by eliminating significant upfront investments. Tecnotree Moments for enterprises and consumers enables a Digital Ecosystem of microservices as an extension of the Digital-BSS-Suite-5 by converting the Moments pre-integrated partner ecosystem into instant revenue generators across industries like: Sports, Gaming, Health & Wellness, Education, and other verticals. This allows Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to seamlessly transform into DSPs, with the opportunity to galvanize their IT ecosystems and launch innovative digital offerings.
While tier-1 providers have a clear path defined about migrating to the cloud in the next few years, tier-2 & 3 providers are considering the merits of cloud-based systems. At the same time, new-age providers, and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are moving quickly towards cloud BSS.
"By integrating Tecnotree products with Microsoft Azure, we help service providers bring new services to the market, With this combined offering, DSPs now have the ability to unlock the full potential of 5G investments while having speed at the center of the transformation. As Tecnotree Moments for B2B2X headless commerce launches in different markets around the world as an extension of our Digital offering, the change will redefine the future of digital business.”
Padma Ravichander, CEO-Tecnotree Corporation
Rick Lievano, CTO WW Telecom at Microsoft says, “With Tecnotree Digital Suite 5 on the Microsoft Azure cloud, Tecnotree enables digital transformation for service providers. By combining Tecnotree’s deep domain expertise and Microsoft’s software capabilities, we help service providers create enhanced user experiences and unlock new revenue streams for the telecom ecosystem.”
About Tecnotree
Tecnotree is a 5G-ready digital Business Support System (BSS) player, with AI/ML capabilities and multi-cloud extensibility. Tecnotree is the first company in the world to be Platinum Certified by TM Forum Open API standards, and our agile and open-source Digital BSS Stack comprises the full range (order-to-cash) of business processes and subscription management for telecom and other digital services industries creating opportunities beyond connectivity. Tecnotree also provides Fintech and B2B2X multi-experience digital marketplace to its subscriber base through the Tecnotree Moments platform to empower digitally connected communities across gaming, health, education, OTT, and other vertical ecosystems. Tecnotree digital platform products and services today serve over 1 Billion Subscribers globally in over 70 countries. Tecnotree is listed on Helsinki Nasdaq (TEM1V).
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CLOUD SECURITY
SoundHound | September 19, 2022
SoundHound AI, Inc. (“SoundHound”), a global leader in voice artificial intelligence, today announced the availability of a whole suite of Edge and Cloud connectivity solutions that will allow brands to voice-enable almost any product, device, or service. Businesses looking to deploy voice AI can choose from options that match their available processing power and end-user needs. These include fully-embedded Edge technology (including a new EdgeLite option), exclusively Cloud-connected technology, or a hybrid combination of Edge+Cloud.
The new offerings mean that automakers, smart device manufacturers, and service providers can select for faster and more accurate response delivery, reduced manufacturing costs, and improved flexibility. Businesses embracing these connectivity options include car brands like Hyundai and prominent smart device manufacturers.
SoundHound’s selection of on-device Edge solutions allow brands adopting voice technology to grant their end-users greater levels of privacy by keeping data stored locally, so it never reaches the cloud. For cloud connectivity, SoundHound allows brands (and not third parties) full control over data privacy so that they can communicate transparently with their users about how information is managed.
“Voice technology is now a must for products destined for the consumer market, but that doesn’t mean it’s one-size-fits-all. Here we’re offering a range of connectivity options that deliver fast and accurate voice AI to meet different needs, The availability of more Edge options will allow businesses to store and protect sensitive data locally – which could help brands build customer trust. Our hybrid options help supercharge speed and accuracy. So whatever the use case or computing capacity, we can match it for optimal results.”
James Hom, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at SoundHound
Available connectivity options:
EdgeLite
With this fully-embedded voice solution companies can process data locally without cloud-related data privacy concerns. Developers have access to natural language commands with less memory and CPU impact, a bundled wake word, and the ability to instantly update commands.
EdgeLite+Cloud
All the capabilities of EdgeLite, with the added flexibility to access the cloud to answer queries or push product updates.
Edge
Fully-embedded voice AI solution with as much Natural Language Understanding (NLU) capabilities to meet customer demand for hands-free convenience – without cloud-related data privacy concerns. Includes full accessibility to custom commands and the ability to create custom domains for proprietary on-device functionality.
Edge+Cloud
The capabilities of Edge with the flexibility and power of cloud connectivity. Allows companies to deliver the level of cloud connectivity that best matches their products and users.
Cloud-Only
Equips voice assistants with real-time data and information from the cloud for delivery of the most relevant responses to user queries, with no restrictions from device CPU and memory capabilities (while retaining ownership of your customer relationships and access to data and analytics).
SoundHound’s Edge+Cloud solutions use Active Arbitration™ technology to ensure that – regardless of the query – the voice assistant will always return the most accurate answer, fast. Before Active Arbitration, users had to settle for solutions that took several seconds to search one platform and then the other looking for a response. SoundHound's Active Arbitration technology delivers a query to the cloud and the embedded system simultaneously, which facilitates a faster, more accurate conversational experience.
“Increasingly, consumers are using their voices to interact with products and devices, and yet many brands are still struggling to settle on the best path when it comes to adopting voice AI,” says Keyvan Mohajer, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of SoundHound. “We’re providing this range of solutions to help any company meet customer expectations of speed and accuracy, with results delivered in the style of natural conversation. And with the right technology in place, voice quickly becomes a new channel to strengthen a brand’s relationship with its customers.”
From EdgeLite to Edge to Cloud-only, manufacturers can now use the same implementation software to provide any level of voice-enablement possible. For small device manufacturers and those looking for a smaller processing footprint, EdgeLite solutions allow them to add voice commands to make their equipment safer and easier to use—and the users of the product more efficient.
Our EdgeLite+Cloud and Edge+Cloud is ideal for circumstances where a cloud connection may not always be reliable—but where the voice user interface is still required to control the equipment or get critical information. Both solutions also use our Active Arbitration technology to get the best, most accurate results by sending the query to the Cloud and embedded system simultaneously.
About SoundHound
SoundHound a leading innovator of conversational intelligence, offers an independent voice AI platform that enables businesses across industries to deliver best-in-class conversational experiences to their customers. Built on proprietary Speech-to-Meaning® and Deep Meaning Understanding® technologies, SoundHound’s advanced voice AI platform provides exceptional speed and accuracy and enables humans to interact with products and services like they interact with each other—by speaking naturally. SoundHound is trusted by companies around the globe, including Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Pandora, Qualcomm, Netflix, Snap, Square, LG, VIZIO, KIA, and Stellantis.
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