Alibaba Cloud has opened a data center in Seoul, South Korea.
The company first announced plans for a South Korean cloud region in October 2021. The company now operates 26 regions and 82 Availability Zones globally.
The company did not disclose what facility its new region was located in.
Unique Song, head of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Korea and Japan, said at an online press conference held with reporters from Korean media on the same day: "We have established a data center in Korea to respond to the growing demand for digital transformation from Korean customers."
Stone Nee, Alibaba Cloud Korea lead, said: "Thanks to the establishment of the new data center, we will train about 2,000 information technology (IT) experts in Korea to help customers avoid delaying innovation due to lack of human resources."
Microsoft launched two regions in South Korea – the Central region in Seoul and the South region in Busan – in 2017. Seoul now has three Availability Zones while Busan only has one available zone. AWS launched its Seoul Region in 2016 and expanded the region with a third Availability Zone in 2019 and a fourth in 2020. Google launched a South Korean region in 2020.
Digital Realty, Equinix, SC Capital Partners, and CPP Investments are all planning hyperscale facility deployments in Seoul.
