Towards Global Multi-Cloud Strategies: Insights into AWS and Alibaba Cloud Synergy

2026-06-19

AI Summary

This study addresses the interoperability and migration challenges enterprises face when deploying workloads across AWS and Alibaba Cloud. Through a systematic comparison of architectural designs, service offerings, and operational policies between the two platforms, the research conducts an exploratory case study on migrating IoT workloads using both native and open-source Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools. It reveals critical technical trade-offs inherent in cross-cloud co-deployment for the first time, distills best practices for secure, resilient, and vendor-lock-in-mitigated multicloud deployments, and proposes a multicloud interoperability framework tailored for global enterprises. The findings offer methodological support for empirically grounded multicloud strategies.

Abstract

Multi-cloud strategies are increasingly adopted by modern enterprises to improve agility and resilience and to reduce vendor lock-in. Integrating workloads across providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Alibaba Cloud, remains challenging due to interoperability and migration issues. This paper presents a comparative analysis of AWS and Alibaba Cloud, focusing on architectural, service, and policy differences affecting workload migration. Using both provider-native and open source Infrastructure-as-Code tools, we conduct an exploratory case study about the migration of Internet of Things (IoT) workloads. The results highlight key technical trade-offs and best practices for secure multi-cloud deployments, offering guidance for organizations pursuing AWS and Alibaba Cloud interoperability.

Problem

• multi-cloud
• interoperability
• workload migration
• AWS
• Alibaba Cloud

Innovation

• multi-cloud
• workload migration
• Infrastructure-as-Code
• cloud interoperability
• IoT