Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing unit of Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has launched an updated version of its self-developed cloud-native database PolarDB, marking the latest innovation in the database sector that has been dominated by foreign enterprises.

The launch of the new version of PolarDB will enable individual developers and enterprise users to develop and manage databases more efficiently, while lowering the threshold of using databases dramatically and saving 50 percent of the costs, said Li Feifei, head of the database product business unit at Alibaba Cloud. 

Noting the database is the core and fundamental technology for managing and storing data, Li said the move is expected to lay the foundation for emergence of AI innovations on the cloud.

A cloud-native database refers to a database that is built, deployed and delivered through a cloud platform. It provides the increased scalability, reliability and access that allow databases to expand and become more distributed.

Currently, the number of PolarDB users has surpassed 10,000, covering government affairs, finance, telecommunication, logistics and internet. Moreover, the latest version of the database can get access to AI-powered large language model, which will greatly improve the level of its intelligent decision-making efficiency.