We used it to collect data from medical devices and then for analytics in the cloud using AI bots and so on.
CEO at a tech company with 11-50 employees
A flexible and affordable cloud solution, but customer support could be better
Pros and Cons
- "Flexibility and costs were probably the most important thing for us. The cost was one of the big factors for choosing Alibaba Cloud relative to other cloud solutions, especially in Asia"
- "The majority of the tools and processes, in general, have a lot of room for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Flexibility and costs were probably the most important thing for us. The cost was one of the big factors for choosing Alibaba Cloud relative to other cloud solutions, especially in Asia. There were a lot of people, especially within China, who wanted it to stay within China. They did not want to get out of China. So having access to companies like Tencent or Alibaba was almost mandatory. It wasn't even a question.
Alibaba also provides a lot of flexibility in terms of tools that are similar to AWS. Alibaba also offers a lot of flexibility compared to Google Cloud, where you can only use Google's Tools. Alibaba has more user-friendly tools and solutions, more compute solutions than anyone else. Compute instances or types of compute instances were a really useful tool for us.
What needs improvement?
The majority of the tools and processes, in general, have a lot of room for improvement. I think, in general, things are there, but they're not good enough. Customer support could also be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I was dealing with Alibaba Cloud for about three and a half years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Relative to Amazon, Alibaba isn't as stable, not as mature, and you have to find a lot of solutions on your own sometimes to make things work. They're not quite there yet, but they're getting better over time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Alibaba Cloud is scalable. The scalability is definitely there.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support has a lot of room for improvement. There's just general documentation, general customer support, and general maturity of the processes are all lacking when compared to Amazon or Google. Sometimes if you need to call technical support, it's also hard to get the right people, or the people you have on the line don't have the right knowledge. It's just not as smooth and not as easy as it should be.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. It's like learning to ski. The initial bit is easy, but then it gets relatively difficult because of lack of support, lack of documentation, or generally the language. Sometimes the documentation is only in Chinese, and you're like, "okay, what do I do now?"
If you need to pick up the phone and talk to someone, it's not always the easiest thing to do with Alibaba. Unless you have local staff with Chinese-speaking people, it becomes a bigger barrier.
The number of people you need to maintain the system is more or less constant depending on what you're supporting and how much work needs to be done. We would use an extra 10% of people in the team to support Alibaba solutions because of the issues we were having with them. But then again, the system itself is between 20-30% cheaper than Amazon. So, it made up for the extra workforce we needed to use the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure about the exact pricing, but let's just say if it cost a dollar for Amazon AWS, it was closer to 70 to 80 cents for Alibaba Cloud.
What other advice do I have?
Relative to Albibaba'ss competitors, they're not as good. I would advise anyone interested to look at the stability of the solution and the documentation and make sure you are familiar with it. Having somebody who has worked on Alibaba Cloud onboard is always useful just to have some knowledge because certain things are not quite obvious. If you haven't worked on them before, then a very simple thing can cost you a lot of time and money.
If you have someone who's worked at those solutions before, you'll be able to deal with it quickly. If you have an insight, a customer service person you're familiar with, then you have a good person to support you. That would be really good because that person can make your company's life a lot easier in terms of solving problems when you run into something.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Alibaba Cloud a six.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Alibaba
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Good pricing and security, but lacks decent performance
Pros and Cons
- "The cost of hosting the solution is very reasonable. It's quite inexpensive."
- "From a performance point of view, Huawei and Azure are faster. Alibaba isn't as good."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for the access it provides. Users can access it from anywhere, including their homes if they need to.
What is most valuable?
The cost of hosting the solution is very reasonable. It's quite inexpensive.
The solution is very secure.
What needs improvement?
We use Azure and Huawei as well, and, from an ease of use perspective, those two are much better. Alibaba should work to make the solution simpler like them.
The interface could be more user-friendly.
From a performance point of view, Huawei and Azure are faster. Alibaba isn't as good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
From what I have seen and how I have used the solution, I find it to be quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution has been scalable for us. However, I haven't personally tried to scale it too much, so I can't gauge exactly how scalable it could be.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've never contacted technical support directly. Typically, if I run into issues, I go to Google and see what I can find online.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We currently also use Huawei and Azure. We use each of these interchangeably.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't too difficult if you are a technical person. However, Azure, for example, is much easier to set up. There's a bit of complexity with Alibaba. We have issues with translation from English to Chinese, for example.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution is quite good and is one of the main reasons we still use it.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer. We don't have a relationship or affiliation with Alibaba.
I wouldn't recommend Alibaba. I think other companies should just use Azure instead, as it's a much simpler solution.
I'd rate it six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Alibaba Cloud
November 2024
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Solution Consultant at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Flexible and reliable with highly responsive technical support
Pros and Cons
- "Alibaba support is responsive. When we create tickets in the Alibaba portal, they usually respond online or call me in five minutes."
- "Alibaba Cloud's initial setup is somewhat complex."
What is our primary use case?
We moved our internal system from the physical server to an Alibaba Cloud instance. And we use a PPM system or some internal system like Salesforce that we migrated over from the physical server to the cloud instance.
What is most valuable?
I think Alibaba Cloud is user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Alibaba Cloud for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Alibaba Cloud is a reliable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think Alibaba Cloud is a flexible solution for us. We can easily add more resources or open another instance at any time.
How are customer service and support?
Alibaba support is responsive. When we create tickets in the Alibaba portal, they usually respond online or call me in five minutes.
How was the initial setup?
Alibaba Cloud's initial setup is somewhat complex.
What was our ROI?
We cut our costs significantly by migrating our infrastructure to the cloud. Alibaba Cloud employs a pay-as-you-go model, so that minimizes many costs for us.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Alibaba Cloud nine out of 10. Many Chinese enterprises are migrating their infrastructure to the cloud, so Alibaba is the preferred cloud platform in China, and the second choice is AWS. Chinese users generally prefer Alibaba because we can get support easily, and they always respond faster.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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