Alibaba Cloud launches 2nd data centre in India
Mumbai, Sep 28 : Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Chinese e-tailer giant Alibaba, on Friday announced the launch of its second data centre in India.
The new "availability zone", located in Mumbai, will offer product lines such as Elastic Computing, Storage, Database, Network, Application Services and Big Data Analytics to support the requirements of local governments and enterprises in the Alibaba Cloud India region, the company said in a statement.
"The commencement of the second availability zone reiterates our focus on India as a key market in Alibaba Cloud's global expansion strategy," said Alex Li, General Manager, Alibaba Cloud India.
In January this year, Alibaba Cloud set up its first India data centre in Mumbai to meet the surge in demand for Cloud computing services among the growing number of Indian small and medium-sized businesses.
Dual availability zones will further enhance the level of security of Alibaba Cloud's data centres in India, the company said.
The new availability zone is part of Alibaba Cloud's strategy to expand its global footprint in order to serve a growing client base while also targeting new local customers.
"India presents a unique growth opportunity with digital transformation set to add close to $154 billion to India's GDP," Li said.
Alibaba Cloud also launched this year distribution channel programme in India with HCL Infosystems Ltd and Ingram Micro as value-added distributors.
The distribution channel programme encourages partners to bring in-depth technical knowledge and build an open ecosystem among sales, technology and service partners.
To further strengthen this network, Alibaba Cloud said it would train 1,000 sales and technology personnel in India by March 2019.
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Top US counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war, says Iran posed no imminent threat
Washington (AP): Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the Trump administration's war in Iran.
Kent said on social media Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
There was no immediate comment from the White House.
Kent, a former political candidate with connections to right-wing extremists, was confirmed to his post last July on a 52-44 vote.
As head of the National Counterterrorism Centre, he was in charge of an agency tasked with analysing and detecting terrorist threats.
Before entering President Donald Trump's administration, Kent ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in Washington state. He also served in the military, seeing 11 deployments as a Green Beret, followed by work at the CIA.
Democrats strongly opposed Kent's confirmation, pointing to his past ties to far-right figures and conspiracy theories. During his 2022 congressional campaign, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right military group the Proud Boys, for consulting work. He also worked closely with Joey Gibson, the founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer, and attracted support from a variety of far-right figures.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Kent also refused to distance himself from a conspiracy theory that federal agents instigated the January 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, as well as false claims that Trump, a Republican, won the 2020 election over Democrat Joe Biden.
Democrats grilled Kent on his participation in a group chat on Signal that was used by Trump's national security team to discuss sensitive military plans.
Still, Republicans praised Kent's counterterrorism qualifications, pointing to his military and intelligence experience.
Sen. Tom Cotton, the GOP chair of the intelligence committee, said in a floor speech that Kent had "dedicated his career to fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe.”
