Spotlight: Alibaba's LatAm cloud strategy

Of the largest public cloud providers – AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Alibaba and IBM – only the Chinese company is lacking datacenters in Latin America, an emerging cloud market with lots of opportunities.

But Alibaba is still providing cloud services to Latin American customers, at least those without data location requirements.

Alibaba Cloud's website lists 74 worldwide partners, one of which is China-based telecoms software specialist Whale Cloud, with operations in Latin America.

Brazilian firm Inova is also listed, even though it reports on its website that it works only with Microsoft and AWS technologies, in addition to Equinix and Rackspace.

“We are basically Alibaba's regional branch for cloud,” Alex Liang, general manager for Whale Cloud in the Americas, told BNamericas. 

According to the executive, Whale Cloud is looking to grow its footprint in Latin America, a market it entered in 2015.

The company provides services in different market segments, to telecom operators, governments and enterprises. It reports over 150 clients in around 80 countries.

Founded in 2003 as ZTEsoft, the company was a subsidiary of China-based vendor ZTE. But when the Alibaba Group invested in 2018, it became the largest shareholder and rebranded the company to Whale Cloud. 

According to Liang, Whale Cloud is the only software and services vendor combining internet background (Alibaba) and industrial services (telecom, private cloud, finance & payment solutions, e-commerce, smart city, among others).

In June, the company launched the ZSmart cloud-based telecom solution suite, backed by Alibaba Cloud.

Whale Cloud said the suite “enables communications service providers to assess digital maturity, gain access to subscription-based telecom solutions and collaborate with ecosystem partners on a single platform.”

WOM, ENTEL AND AMÉRICA MÓVIL

In Latin America, the core of Whale Cloud’s operations to date, however, has been business supporting services (BSS) and operating supporting services (OSS) for telecom operators. 

These two systems are deemed vital for planning and managing networks, as well as for developing innovative services and customer service. 

Among the leading providers of BSS and OSS platforms are Amdocs, Huawei, Ericsson, Netcracker and Oracle.

One Whale Cloud client for full-stack BSS and OSS services is WOM Chile. 

Recently, the company won a bidding process with WOM's parent Novator Partners to supply the same full-stack BSS and OSS suite to WOM Colombia, Liang said.

Another key full-stack BSS/OSS contract was inked with Bolivian state-run telco Entel. Signed in 2015, the contract effectively marked the beginning of Whale Cloud operations in Latin America, the executive said.

Whale Cloud also claims to have a contract with América Móvil for retail and e-commerce solutions, and another agreement with a payment company in Mexico to offer Alipay, Alibaba’s payment solution suite, Liang said, without disclosing who this customer is.

The company’s regional staff comprises around 100 people, with offices and operations in Mexico, Colombia and Chile.

The company is now reaching out to other tier one operators, as well as banks, integrators and datacenter companies to strengthen the regional presence and expand its customer base.

“We want to be a Latin American leader for the digital transformation,” Liang said.

One market the company is eyeing is Brazil, a highly competitive environment in both payment and cloud solutions.

But Liang is confident: “We have high expectations with this market.”