IBM SoftLayer Extends its Cloud to Hong Kong

The first of IBM’s new data centers will be open at the end of April in Hong Kong. The SoftLayer data center is the first of 15 planned data centers that Big Blue will open in 2014 as part of its $1.2 billion commitment towards data center expansion to support its cloud.

"As part of IBM’s expanding global cloud footprint, we are launching a new data center in Hong Kong," said Lance Crosby, CEO of IBM SoftLayer. "This effort is designed to enable clients to benefit from the power and performance of secure cloud services built on open standards, providing the elasticity needed by the fast-growing, entrepreneurial businesses that Hong Kong is known for."

The Hong Kong data center will have capacity for more than 15,000 physical servers. It adds to an existing Asia footprint that includes a data center in Singapore and points of presence in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Network connectivity is provided by multiple Tier-1 network carriers. SoftLayer’s strategy is to be within 40 milliseconds of latency from any customer in the world, and this vision is being realized with the funding IBM is pumping into the data center infrastructure.

SoftLayer already had a solid AsiaPac customer base, and the new data center only strengthens its position in that region. It counts Distil Networks, Tiket.com, Simpli.fi, 6waves and Beijing Elex as customers in Asia.

SoftLayer builds its data centers around the world in a consistent standardized format. The company touted $4.4 billion in cloud revenue in 2013, and has been pumping in more investment as it takes on incumbent Amazon Web Services, as well as increasing pressure from the likes of Rackspace as well as most recently, Cisco, which just committed to investing $1 billion on cloud data centers and service delivery.

SoftLayer combines bare metal, virtual servers, and networking in a single platform. Everything is deployed on-demand and with full remote access and control. Customers can create public, private and hybrid cluds for their applications and workloads.