Introduction:

Alibaba was recently named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Edge Delivery Service 2024 Vendor Assessment (doc # US51812424, November 2024). Alibaba was also named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Commercial CDN Services 2022 Vendor Assessment (doc # US47652821, March 2022)

The IDC MarketScape notes, “Alibaba developed a third-generation global and edge-native edge security architecture. It aims to allow 95% of global internet users to access Alibaba Cloud CDN within 50ms. With enhanced computing power, Alibaba will support 300 protocol drivers for IoT devices and transcoding tasks such as narrowband HD and ultra HD at the edge.”

At the same time, Alibaba Cloud ranked first in China's edge public cloud service market for four consecutive years in the " IDC China Semiannual Edge Cloud Tracker, 2023H2" report released by IDC, the world's leading IT market research and consulting company.

In September 2024, Alibaba Cloud launched a new generation of acceleration product, Edge Security Acceleration (ESA). ESA is a global network platform composed of infrastructure nodes located worldwide. In the face of complex global network environments and pervasive cyberattack, ESA provides a one-stop cloud service for streamlined network and edge management to clients in industries such as gaming, e-commerce, finance, and retail. It accelerates content delivery across various domains such as Internet, applications, data centers, enterprise offices, and AI, while providing robust, comprehensive protection for data assets.

Global Infrastructure

ESA connects major cloud service providers, data centers, and ISPs around the world with core nodes located worldwide. On the foundation of providing stable interconnect links, it utilizes an Anycast system to access high-performance node engines, achieving an average DNS resolution speed of less than 30 milliseconds across global sites.

Web traffic optimization and protection

ESA provides performance optimization and protection at the network and application layers for all connected sites, including websites, applications, and AI. It supports communication and networking between VPCs in the cloud and at the edge, while also securing data centers and data assets.

Serverless development platform

By harnessing the boundless cloud and edge computing power, ESA enables all POPs to deliver serverless environments that integrate storage and compute capabilities and key-value storage. Developers can easily use the Node.js-compatible serverless development platform to set up and deploy their applications across global POPs.

Comprehensive security and performance analysis

ESA uses a brand-new log system to collect and store DNS, network-layer, and application-layer logs on the premise of meeting compliance requirements. With the low-latency analytics system, you can access instant analysis results, enabling identification of anomalies in just seconds. ESA integrates native DDoS mitigation, Web Application Firewall (WAF), and Alibaba Cloud-developed machine learning algorithms to provide all-round protection for customers' business security.

IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of technology and suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each supplier’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures supplier product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of supplier strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Supplier market share is represented by the size of the icons.

About IDC MarketScape: IDC MarketScape vendor assessment model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of technology and service suppliers in a given market. The research utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each supplier’s position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of technology suppliers can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective suppliers.