IBM Puts $38 Million into New Singapore Cloud Computing Data Center

IBM Corp. said that it will pour some $38 million into a new cloud computing data center in Singapore to offer businesses in the Asia Pacific region access to cloud services and related technology, a market researchers estimate will climb to nearly $5 billion by 2014.

The facility is scheduled to open in April with a raft of cloud services intended to help businesses accelerate time to market, reduce costs, increase security and compliance of public cloud environments, and promote flexibility and agility, IBM officials said.

IBM said that its initial offering at the Singapore data center will stem from its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) portfolio. In addition, a collection of software from the vendor’s Software Group and products from third-party developers designed for mid-sized businesses, large enterprises and ISVs will be available, officials said.

“IBM’s investment in our Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Data Centre in Singapore reflects the increase in demand for cloud solutions and services by our clients in the region,” said Andrew Sotiropoulos, IBM Asia Pacific general manager, Global Technology Services.

“The Centre will provide the highest security standards and capabilities to minimize capital expenditure and reduce operational costs,” he said.

In addition to the impending Singapore facility, IBM maintains seven cloud labs in Asia Pacific, including China, India, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Vietnam, and cloud delivery centers in Germany, Canada and the U.S. In total, the vendor operates 13 cloud labs throughout the world.

IBM pointed to figures from researcher International Data Corp. pegging the market for cloud services in the Asia Pacific region, including Japan, at about $4.9 billion by 2014, a 40 percent annual growth rate.

Chris Morris, IDC Asia Pacific director, Cloud Services & Technologies, attributed the expected growth for cloud services in the region to infrastructure provided by new data centers.

“While cloud services have been attractive in the past, concerns about the consistency of the service performance due to the potential impact of network latency and the location of the data have inhibited their uptake for anything that was a critical workload,” Morris said.

“This increased availability of enterprise-class cloud services will underpin the acceleration of cloud services in APEJ as cloud service shifts from the SMB sector to the large enterprise," he said.