New paper maps AWS-Alibaba Cloud migration for IoT workloads

A new research paper on arXiv (arXiv:2606.21680) by Martin G. Zizler, Malte Prieß, and Christoph P. Neumann presents a comparative analysis of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Alibaba Cloud, focusing on architectural, service, and policy differences that affect workload migration. The authors conducted an exploratory case study on migrating Internet of Things (IoT) workloads between the two cloud providers, using both provider-native and open-source Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools. The paper aims to address the growing need for multi-cloud strategies as enterprises seek agility, resilience, and reduced vendor lock-in.

The study reveals key technical trade-offs, such as differences in compute, storage, and networking services, as well as policy and compliance nuances. The authors provide actionable best practices for orchestrating secure multi-cloud deployments, emphasizing that successful integration requires careful planning around data consistency, latency, and security boundaries. This research offers concrete guidance for organizations pursuing interoperability between Western (AWS) and Chinese (Alibaba Cloud) cloud ecosystems, a challenge that is becoming increasingly relevant for global enterprises.