What is the name of Alibaba's cloud computing service?

Alibaba’s cloud computing service is called Alibaba Cloud.

Alibaba Cloud is the cloud-computing subsidiary of Alibaba Group, the Chinese technology company behind platforms such as Taobao and Tmall. It provides on-demand computing power, data storage, databases, networking, cybersecurity, artificial-intelligence tools and content-delivery services to businesses and developers.

The service began in 2009 and is also known by its Chinese name, Aliyun. Alibaba originally built cloud infrastructure to support its rapidly expanding e-commerce operations, then developed it into a commercial platform for outside customers. That background explains why it is often compared with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

A common mix-up is confusing Alibaba Cloud with Tencent Cloud or Huawei Cloud, which are separate Chinese cloud providers. Alibaba Cloud is the service name; Alibaba Group is the parent company, while Aliyun is an alternate name rather than a different platform.