Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and intelligence arm of the Alibaba Group, is targetting to support 5,000 Philippine enterprises with their digital migrations by the end of 2023.
Allen Guo, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence country manager for the Philippines, said this in an email interview with Business Bulletin citing the country’s enormous digital economy growth with local enterprises being well-positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities.
“Alibaba Cloud has set a goal of supporting 5,000 Philippine enterprises with their digital migrations by the end of 2023,” said Guo.
According to Guo, businesses in the Philippines are embracing cloud technology because it has given them the flexibility to adjust quickly and easily during the pandemic. “We anticipate that more businesses in the Philippines will adopt cloud services for their core businesses as they try to thrive in
the new normal and prepare for the post-pandemic era,” he said.
The rapid adoption of digital technologies is key to the recovery of the local business sector and the Philippine economy as a whole during the pandemic, he said. As such, he said, more businesses in the country are realizing how cloud technologies can provide transformative solutions and help them save money, while ensuring greater efficiency and flexibility to meet the ever-changing demands of customers.
With the ongoing digital transformation of businesses, Guo said that Alibaba Cloud aims to be a trusted cloud service provider and partner in the Philippines, enabling local enterprises to adapt and thrive in the new normal by helping them to capture and capitalize on growth opportunities presented by digital transformation.
To support local operations, Guo said they are also set to train 50,000 and certify at least 10,000 IT professionals by 2023 to nurture the local information and communications techno (ICT) labor forces with its technological expertise and experience as a leading company in cloud-based technology, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
The trend in local digitalization was also seen in Alibaba Cloud’s recent survey “The Role of Cloud in Asia and Confidence in Asian Innovation”, which showed 88 percent of Philippine businesses are now more supportive of using cloud-based IT solutions to grow their businesses as compared to before COVID-19.
It was gathered in the same survey that a large majority or 94 percent of Philippine businesses now also view cloud-based IT solutions as crucial component in mitigating the impact of the pandemic.
According to Guo, despite the pandemic its operation in the Philippines has remained resilient as more companies are turning to cloud solutions to stay afloat. Industries that accelerated their digital transformation in 2020 include digital banking, e-commerce, virtual workspaces, and online education and entertainment. “To close the gap between talent supply and demand, we have so far trained around 10,000 local talents through various online measures,” he added.
“We believe we are just at the beginning of the cloud and digital intelligence era. "Alibaba Cloud aims to empower Filipino enterprises with our leading cloud service infrastructure, advanced analytics tools, cutting-edge cloud solutions and thriving ecosystem -- significantly lowering cloud adoption barriers and ensuring inclusive access.”
“We will continue to grow and strengthen our digital ecosystem in the Philippines to empower local partners with proven technology and innovation. To encourage more enterprises to realize the benefits from the latest cloud and analytics intelligence technologies, Alibaba Cloud has extensively trained its local workforce in the Philippines to support specific needs of clients and provide tailored solutions to address customer pain points or any challenges during digital migrations,” he added. “I am determined to lead Alibaba Cloud Philippine team in driving the local digital transformation of businesses,” said Guo, who brings in his vast understanding on how to drive business innovation with the power of digital technology.