IBM announces cloud computing data center will open in Singapore
IBM will invest $38 million in a new data center in Singapore.
By Donna DonowitzMarch 14, 2011
The widespread belief that much of the global growth in cloud computing will be focused on Asia in the near future will be bolstered by the news that IBM is set to open an extensive data center in Singapore, the company announced earlier this month.
Andrew Sotiropolous, the company's general manager for global technology services in the Asia Pacific region, said the center will help IBM's clients in the region improve and streamline their operations.
"IBM's investment in our Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Data Center in Singapore reflects the increase in demand for cloud solutions and services by our clients in the region. The center will provide the highest security standards and capabilities to minimize capital expenditure and reduce operational costs," he said in the company's announcement.
IBM cited statistics from researcher IDC as saying that the cloud computing market in the Far East will be worth nearly $5 billion by 2014, growing at an average rate of 40 percent every year until then.
The only major obstacle in the way of the cloud's progress in Asia, the research firm continued, is that increasing demand has created serious load problems for servers that provide cloud storage or app hosting. The advent of new regional data centers like the one provided by IBM should help mitigate this problem by boosting capacity, according to IDC, improving access to enterprise-class cloud offerings.
IBM said that the data center's first service will be the company's Infrastructure-as-a-Service product line, which provides quick and responsive access to highly secure virtual environments. IBM's IaaS offerings attempt to take advantage of the cloud's scalability, decreasing investment costs, development times and standardizing application and data access across an enterprise.
Wisely, the company is eager to tout the security of its cloud services, since this has long been perceived as one of the central drawbacks to the model of distributed computing products, according to experts. The first service provider to make a convincing case for why its cloud computing is significantly more secure than its competitors could reap a fortune in sales, though many have argued the security issue is overblown to begin with.
Andrew Sotiropolous, the company's general manager for global technology services in the Asia Pacific region, said the center will help IBM's clients in the region improve and streamline their operations.
"IBM's investment in our Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Data Center in Singapore reflects the increase in demand for cloud solutions and services by our clients in the region. The center will provide the highest security standards and capabilities to minimize capital expenditure and reduce operational costs," he said in the company's announcement.
IBM cited statistics from researcher IDC as saying that the cloud computing market in the Far East will be worth nearly $5 billion by 2014, growing at an average rate of 40 percent every year until then.
The only major obstacle in the way of the cloud's progress in Asia, the research firm continued, is that increasing demand has created serious load problems for servers that provide cloud storage or app hosting. The advent of new regional data centers like the one provided by IBM should help mitigate this problem by boosting capacity, according to IDC, improving access to enterprise-class cloud offerings.
IBM said that the data center's first service will be the company's Infrastructure-as-a-Service product line, which provides quick and responsive access to highly secure virtual environments. IBM's IaaS offerings attempt to take advantage of the cloud's scalability, decreasing investment costs, development times and standardizing application and data access across an enterprise.
Wisely, the company is eager to tout the security of its cloud services, since this has long been perceived as one of the central drawbacks to the model of distributed computing products, according to experts. The first service provider to make a convincing case for why its cloud computing is significantly more secure than its competitors could reap a fortune in sales, though many have argued the security issue is overblown to begin with.
