China was one of the largest markets for public cloud services in 2020.
Recently in March 2021 AWS China announced the (Ningxia) region operated by Xiyun Data will be expanded in phase two, with an expected additional plant facility area and 1.3 times the computing capacity to support phase one.
Not only that, the Amazon Cloud Technology (Beijing) region, operated by Halo New Network, will officially launch its third Availability Zone later in 2021, providing customers with more flexible, reliable, and usable infrastructure services.
In addition, Amazon Cloud Technology announced a strategic partnership with Huami Technologies, which uses Amazon Cloud Technology globally to support its “core cloud” strategic layout in more than 70 countries and regions around the world.
Under the agreement with Huami, the Chinese company will use Amazon Cloud Technology’s global infrastructure, security compliance capabilities and Cloud technology and services. Both companies will also explore other areas to provide more health services.
Also, in March Microsoft announced it was planning to bring a new Azure Region to North China in 2022 through its local operating partner, 21Vianet.
This expansion was expected to effectively “double the capacity” of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud portfolio in China in the coming years, which includes Azure, Microsoft Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform operated by 21Vianet, to power innovation and digital transformation for developers, partners, and customers in China and around the world.
In China, Microsoft has been collaborating with 21Vianet to run all these essential cloud services since 2014. Announced in 2012, and officially launched in March 2014 with two initial regions, Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet was the first international public cloud service to become generally available in the China market. Following Azure, Microsoft Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform operated by 21Vianet successively launched in China in 2014, 2019, and 2020.
According to IDC China was one of the largest markets for public cloud services in 2020 with its US$19.4 billion spend that will account for about 53.4 per cent of APAC (excluding Japan) total. Openness of enterprises to adopt cloud technology supplemented by government initiatives and presence of home-grown cloud service providers is boosting the adoption.
According to the Chinese International Institute of Technology and Economics of the Development Research Center of the State Council’s 2019 paper on the Development and Application of China’s Cloud Computing Industry showed that “5G + Cloud + AI” has become an important engine for the development of my country’s digital economy.
It is estimated that by 2023, the scale of China’s cloud computing industry will exceed 300 billion yuan, and the cloud use rate of governments and enterprises will exceed 60 per cent.
The paper integrates data released by research institutions such as China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and IDC, and shows that in 2018, the scale of China’s cloud computing industry reached 96.28 billion yuan.
From a regional perspective, North China, East China, and South China are the leading regions for the development of China’s cloud computing industry. Mainly because these areas are concentrated in China’s major Internet companies and users in industries such as finance, consumer goods, and manufacturing. Among them, North China has the highest share, accounting for 23.1 per cent.
