CLOUD computing is at a crossroads with the next generation of the technology to be driven by massive data intelligence and sustainability.
Wang Jian, (aka Jian Wang) the chief technology officer of Alibaba Group said that unlocking the full potential of cloud computing requires added innovations to data management. These innovations should be more open, collaborative, and secure. He also said that cloud computing needs to be used to develop sustainable solutions that can help businesses reduce their environmental impact.
For her part, Selina Yuan, President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group unveiled a range of groundbreaking AI products and services during the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Global Summit. These innovative offerings are aimed at meeting the growing demand for Generative AI development from customers worldwide
Her speech appeared to be an answer to Jian’s challenge.
Jian outlined a number of ways that Alibaba Cloud is working to accelerate innovation in data intelligence and sustainability. For example, Alibaba Cloud is developing new AI frameworks and data lakehouse services to help businesses make better use of their data. Alibaba Cloud is also investing in renewable energy and green computing initiatives to reduce its own environmental impact and help its customers do the same.
“To meet the increasing demand for Generative AI, we continuously introduce innovative products and services to address various challenges faced by our global customers. Our comprehensive AI services are tailored to help customers seize the extraordinary opportunities presented by this unstoppable technological trend,” Yuan told the over 200 attendees at the summit held in the City of Hangzhou which was also hosting the 2023 Asian Games.
Alibaba’s CTO also stressed that the cloud computing industry has a responsibility to use its technology to solve the world’s most pressing problems. He said that Alibaba Cloud is committed to using cloud computing to build a more sustainable and equitable future.
This point was also addressed by Yuan who said how Alibaba Cloud simplify AI processes with the introduction of the PAI-Lingjun Intelligent Computing Service, a comprehensive AI computing platform tailored for high-performance computing tasks like foundational model training and inference.
This platform offers extensive deep learning and intelligent computing capabilities on Alibaba Cloud, along with full-cycle AI engineering capabilities encompassing AI development, training, role management, and computing resource management. The platform, already operational in Mainland China, is set to launch in Singapore in early 2024, followed by a broader availability across Asia during the year.
“As part of our commitment to fostering more inclusive and innovative generative AI application development, we have been collaborating with industry leaders to further enhance our capabilities for various scenarios,” Yuan added.
To expedite AI model training and inference, Alibaba Cloud launched the Alibaba Cloud AI Acceleration Solution. This solution leverages leading datasets and hardware accelerators to optimize data-intensive applications, enhancing the utilization of computing instances for faster AI model training and inference.
It can accelerate AI model training by 70 percent and inference by up to three times, according to the Stanford DAWN Deep Learning Benchmark. The solution comprises layers for cloud-native AI suite, AI job scheduling, AI data acceleration, AI computing acceleration engine, resource scheduling, and computing resources, each offering specific acceleration solutions for various scenarios.
Alibaba Cloud unveiled the OpenSearch LLM-Based Conversational Search, a proprietary large-scale distributed search engine that simplifies the creation of AI-based search services. This engine supports intelligent search services across e-commerce, multimedia, social media, and big data queries in enterprises.
Powered by large language models, it enables enterprises to quickly build dedicated conversational search systems, ensuring secure, accurate, and reliable search results. The service also supports multimodal search results, including answers, URLs, and images to cater to diverse business search requirements.
Alibaba Cloud has also announced strategic partnerships with global technology leaders to provide customers with advanced and security-focused cloud services.
The first is a collaboration with Red Hat, Alibaba Cloud is making Red Hat OpenShift, a platform for building, deploying, and managing applications at scale, deployable on Alibaba Cloud. This combination brings together the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes with Alibaba Cloud’s robust hybrid infrastructure, optimized for full-stack automated operations to offer a consistent experience across environments and boost customer productivity.
Next it also announced collaborations with enterprise customers in various markets, including Malaysia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, reaffirming its commitment to serving its over 4 million global customers and exploring new opportunities presented by digital transformation and emerging AI trends.
While Jian made a clear call for the cloud computing industry to use its technology to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Yuan highlighted how Alibaba is leading the way in this AI in the cloud, and how its innovations in data intelligence and sustainability are helping businesses to build a more sustainable and equitable future.
