SoftLayer Will Invest $75 Million in Europe

SoftLayer Technologies today announced the opening of its new European headquarters and data center in Amsterdam. Over the next two years the company will invest approximately $75 million in its European operations, which also includes new network PoPs in Amsterdam, London, and Frankfurt.

The investment in its European operations will allow SoftLayer to offer improved performance and features to its customers, will officially go live at the beginning of November. Nearly half of SoftLayer's 23,000 customers are outside the United States, hailing from coming from more than 140 countries.

"This launch strengthens our foothold across Europe by bringing our services closer to our existing and expanding customer base," said Lance Crosby, Chief Executive Officer for SoftLayer. "Proximity to our customers is crucial to driving innovation and improving a better end-user experience. Currently more than 50 percent of our business is done outside North America. Our continued expansion into international markets gives our customers more control and flexibility in the way they manage and build out their cloud infrastructures and services."

With the opening of the Amsterdam data center, SoftLayer will have 13 data centers and 16 PoPs worldwide. The company’s global network fully integrates three distinct and redundant network architectures - public, private, and data center to data center - for maximum accessibility, security, and control.

"The market opportunity for providing hosting and cloud solutions is still in its infancy," said Melanie A. Posey, IDC Research Vice President, Hosting & Managed Network Services. "Companies like SoftLayer are taking the lead in establishing a globally accessible network that is helping push the adoption of these computing models to a broader mainstream audience. The addition of the new data center and capabilities will provide a foundation for users to securely run a complete gamut of solutions and services based on SoftLayer’s unique Intellectual Property (IP) and turnkey offerings."