Why host in China?
If your website or application is available to Chinese users and you are looking to operate in the Chinese market, you must host your service in China.
The reason is three-fold:
- Compliance: China Cybersecurity Law requires that personally identifiable information (PII) and important data of the critical information infrastructure (CII) operator to be stored domestically (on servers physically located in China). All your customer data must remain within China to remain compliant. Cross-border data transfer is subject to security assessment and government approval. Online service providers also have the obligation to verify the real name of users. For business entity users, a state-registered business license is required for real name verification.
- Accessibility: certain services such as the Google Cloud Services are inaccessible in China. And if your service or application relies on Google Play Services to be locally installed – even for features as simple as returning a location – you can count on them to be unusable by most Chinese mobile devices.
- Performance: other global cloud services such as AWS are accessible in China, but run very slowly, due to their physical location outside of China and their need to pass through the Great Firewall. As a result, your website and/or application will run slowly, if at all, in a country where users are already accustomed to fast response times.
The Most Common Cloud Services/Distributed Web Services for Mainland China
Many cloud services and distributed web services are available and widely used by the most popular apps in China:
AWS China
To use AWS resources in either, or both, of its two regions – Beijing Region (operated by Sinnet) or Ningxia Region (operated by NWCD) – you must create an AWS China Account, which is distinct and separate from other AWS Global accounts. Most of the same services you find on AWS outside of China are available, but availability varies slightly depending on region. CloudX is an advanced partner, solution provider, and public sector partner with AWS China and AWS Global.
Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. It is the largest cloud computing company in China, with 19 data center regions and 56 availability zones around the globe. Its data centers in China are China North, China South, China East, and Hong Kong. Alibaba Cloud offers services on a pay-as-you-go basis and include Elastic Compute, Data Storage, Relational Databases, Big-Data Processing, Anti-DDoS protection and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). CloudX is a partner with Alibaba Cloud.
Azure Cloud China
Azure Cloud is run by Microsoft, which has a partnership with Chinese data center provider 21Vianet to offer Azure and Office 365 in the country. It has an online playbook to assist customers moving from Azure Global to Azure China. Nearly all services available to Azure Cloud Global are available on Azure Cloud China. CloudX is a partner with Azure Cloud China.
Tencent Cloud
Tencent Cloud offers services including Cloud Object Storage (COS), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), cloud database hosting through TencentDB (MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, MariaDB, SQL Server, PostgreSQL and more), load balancing, Cloud Virtual Machines (CVM), Anti-DDoS protection, auto-scaling data processing, and more. CloudX is a partner with Tencent Cloud.
At CloudX, we proudly provide a one-stop technical and consulting services for global clients to land and scale in China. We help you to choose the right cloud(s), migrate your system and applications, provide the professional and managed services on the cloud, with our 24X7 English speaking global teams. Our China-located engineer team ensures to support your operations from within China for compliance with the China Cybersecurity Law with the personally identifiable information (PII) and important data of the critical information infrastructure (CII) staying within China.
How can I set up cloud services or AWS in China?
Though the exact process may vary depending on which service provider you choose, you generally need to provide:
- A Chinese business license issued by the Chinese State Administration of Industry and Commerce. Contact us if you do not have a Chinese business license.
- Valid contact information.
- You can set up a cloud account by yourself. To do this, you will likely need the assistance of a Chinese speaker for the one-time setup of an account with whichever service you end up choosing. You may also need a Chinese bank account for regular service payments.
- To save you the hassle, CloudX provides this assistance through our standard service package. We provide the consulting services to decide which cloud provider best suits your business needs and existing global tech structure. We will also help you with cost optimization as various providers have different requirements in terms of payment (payment terms, deposits, advance payment, etc.). In order to get the services available for use, an ICP recordal or ICP license is also required.
How difficult will it be to integrate my system/application with a Chinese Cloud Service?
As technical aspects are standardized around the world, integration should be a fairly straightforward process with your development team. You will however want to retain the services of a Chinese interpreter in case you need to contact the provider to decipher any technical specifications or procedures that are unclear.
However, depending on your website, platform, applications and its dependencies, this could be either a simple or daunting task. The important thing is that your development team is aware from the beginning of any future integration requirements with alternative cloud services. Factoring this in from the beginning of your mobile applications development process will save time, money, and frustration in the future. We can help analyze your applications to discover its dependencies and give expert guidance.
Keep in mind that you can maintain a version of your applications for your non-Chinese users on your current cloud services provider. In fact, that is preferable to optimize their experience. You only need to create a separate version of your applications for China.
How can we help?
We can analyze your website/system/application to discover their dependencies, and give guidance on what needs to be changed. We provide hassle-free English assistance to set up an account with a Chinese cloud services provider on your behalf and walk your developers, in English, through the technical process and requirements of retooling your website/system/application. We will also help your developers with any future updates required to ensure your website/system/application continues to work flawlessly in Mainland China and beyond.
