IBM Inks Cloud Deal with JVC Kenwood

ibm-makuhari

the IBM Technology Center in Makuhari, Chiba, Japan

For IBM, the cloudy horizon extends well beyond the United States. The latest example: JVC Kenwood Holdings, Inc. has signed a six-year, $28 million (2.6 billion yen) contract with IBM Japan to adapt cloud computing technologies to manage its IT systems.

JVC Kenwood, which makes audio and video electronics, will use Big Blue's Shared Hosting Services out of IBM’s data center in Makuhari, Chiba to leverage pools of technology resources during periods of high volume. IBM will also centralize IT resources by relocating JVC Kenwoods’ existing data centers in Saitama and Tokyo to the Makuhari Data Center, which features an advanced seismic isolated system and redundant electrical system. JVC Kenwood will use IBM System z mainframes ("zSHS") for a shared, virtual infrastructure.

The deal is the latest in a series of international cloud computing announcements for IBM. Big Blue's global cloud computing initiative features cloud computing centers in Dublin, Ireland; Beijing, China and Johannesburg, South Africa. The company has provided cloud computing services to clients such as Wuxi City of China, Sogeti, the Local Professional Services Division of Capgemini, the Vietnamese government institutions and universities, and iTricity, a utility-based hosting service provider headquartered in the Netherlands.