Salesforce to Open Second Data Center in Japan

Salesforce is continuing its international data center expansion with a second data center in Japan, announced this week. It will join the company's other Japanese data center opened in 2011 when it lights up in the first half of next year.

Salesforce hasn’t disclosed the provider, but its first data center in Japan is with NTT, and the company has frequently used Equinix globally.

In addition to growing its Asia data center footprint, the SaaS giant has been expanding in Europe, driven by healthy customer growth in the region. The company announced three new data centers in the U.K., France, and Germany. It launched the U.K facility recently. Two data centers in Canada are in planning stages.

Salesforce is trying to drive up its international revenue by opening data centers in support of its Software-as-a-Service offerings. This is particularly imperative as more companies look to keep data within their countries and amid heated competition from companies like SAP, IBM, and Oracle.

It used to be a battle of SaaS versus traditional software, in which Salesforce thrived. Now the traditional vendors like SAP are focusing on SaaS as well. Salesforce’s first Asia data center opened in 2009 in Singapore.

Japan has a growing digital economy, and Salesforce has made over 20 investments in the country's technology market.

The company also touted a new high-profile customer Thursday -- Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry developed a big data solution for conducting road inspections using the Salesforce1 Platform.

“Salesforce continues to invest in Japan,” Shinichi Koide, chairman and CEO of Salesforce Japan, said in a statement. “Our second data center, our investments in tech companies, and our foundation work will enable us to continue to build trust with our customers and partners in Japan.”

Salesforce reported earnings of $1.38 billion in revenue in November for the most recent quarter. The company beat expectations, but there is some investor concern, particularly around profitability.

Edit 12/9: The two new data centers planned for Canada have not opened yet and are in planning stages.