The Tianjin government has asked municipally controlled companies to migrate their data from private sector operators like Alibaba and Tencent to a state-backed cloud system by next year.

Details: In an official document dated August 12, the Tianjin State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said that companies hosting their data on third-party managed cloud platforms such as those by Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent will need to move to a government-run cloud named Guoziyun.

When the current cloud resource rental agreements, enterprises are not allowed to sign or renew the contract with civilian-run cloud providers, and should relocate to Guoziyun within two months, the document said, adding that all data should be moved by September 30, 2022.

SASAC said the document was following instructions given by China's cabinet, the State Council.

Context: The state-owned cloud project is not new. Previously, Sichuan Energy Investment Group and Sichuan Telecom jointly established Sichuan Guoziyun in April, which is also the first dedicated cloud for state-owned enterprises in China. Sichuan Guoziyun has reportedly adopted Alibaba's cloud technology.

Zhang Kun, the managing director of AlayaCloud Consulting, speculated that the move may be "related to the previous Alibaba Cloud data leak issue."

Alibaba Cloud recently said in a statement that the incident took place during the November 11 Singles’ Day shopping festival in 2019, when “a telemarketing employee violated company discipline, privately obtained client contact information and leaked it to a distributor’s staff member”. 

The telecoms authority of China’s eastern Zhejiang province has told Alibaba Cloud that it violated the country’s Cybersecurity Law and should make rectifications.