IBM Opens Cloud Data Center in Singapore

Singapore is a hot market for data center and cloud computing development. IBM today became the latest provider to open a new facility in Singapore, announced a $38 million investment in a new IBM Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Data Centre.

The new facility will extend IBM’s global cloud delivery network with data centers in Germany, Canada and the United States., Big Blue also operates 13 global cloud labs, including seven in Asia Pacific – China, India, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and now Singapore. The focus on Asia reflects the growing market for Internet and cloud usage in the region.

"The APEJ market for cloud computing services will grow by an average 40 percent per annum rate through 2014 to reach $4.9 billion (US)," said Chris Morris, Director of Cloud Services & Technologies, IDC Asia/Pacific. "A major driver of this growth has been the new regional data centres which are now emerging to provide the necessary infrastructure for growth of the key cloud service areas. 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. 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."

Cloud labs combine hosting infrastructure with software development environments. Scheduled to launch in April, the Singapore Centre will feature make IBM’s cloud services and delivery infrastructure. The first offering to be available at the IBM Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Data Centre will be from IBM's infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud portfolio.

"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, General Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM Asia Pacific. "The Centre will provide the highest security standards and capabilities to minimize capital expenditure and reduce operational costs."