Alibaba Cloud, the technology backbone of Alibaba Group, has introduced the Alibaba Cloud Container Compute Service (ACS) to its international market, aiming to simplify containerized workload deployment. ACS will be available globally starting January 2025.
ACS operates as a serverless container service based on Kubernetes. It provides users with computing resources without requiring them to manage nodes or clusters, cutting costs and reducing technical challenges. The service follows a pay-as-you-go model, enabling businesses to optimize expenses during varying workloads.
“ACS represents a big step forward in how businesses can utilize container technology, offering cost-efficiency and ease of use to support businesses unleashing productivity,” Jiangwei Jiang, GM of Infrastructure Products, Alibaba Cloud, said in a media release.
Containers, a type of virtualization that packages software with its dependencies, allow consistent application deployment across various systems. As container usage grows, Gartner predicts the container management market will reach $4.5 billion by 2028. It also estimates that by 2027, more than 75% of AI deployments will use container-based environments.
Alibaba Cloud integrates ACS with its Shenlong architecture, allowing on-demand scaling and promising to reducing computing power costs by up to 55%. The product supports seamless migration for open-source and proprietary Kubernetes applications.
“ACS has transformed the container orchestration service into a comprehensive computing product. Users benefit by paying only for the compute capacity that they use,” Jiang said.
Early adopters, such as Chinese HR SaaS firm Moka, have seen operational improvements. Moka reported that ACS’s maintenance-free clusters and flexible scaling have streamlined its operations during peak recruitment seasons.