HP opens $35.6M lab in Singapore

SINGAPORE--Hewlett-Packard has opened a research facility here, its third of such labs in the Asia-Pacific region, which will look at how data centers and application can be redesigned to meet future cloud computing needs.

Launched Wednesday, the new HP Labs Singapore will work closely with the company's other global labs such as its Service Automation and Integration Lab (SAIL) based in Palo Alto, California, and the Automated Infrastructure Lab (AIL) based in Bristol, England, to build HP's new enterprise cloud software platform, dubbed Cirrious.

HP said it will invest S$50 million (US$35.6 million) over five years into the new local facility, the seventh of such labs worldwide.

"Singapore is home to many of HP's largest data center customers, and the development of this research facility supporting the company's cloud computing leadership efforts underscores the importance of the region for future growth opportunities," Tan Yen Yen, vice president and managing director of HP Singapore, said in a statement. The country serves as the company's regional headquarters.

HP said the expanded investment is a result of a rapidly growing regional customer base, as well as Singapore's "business-friendly attributes" such as easy access to global talent, a collaborative culture and a good network infrastructure.

Citing Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore's minister for trade and industry, HP said the ministry is "very pleased" HP is expanding its full value chain of activities in Singapore to include upstream research. "HP's expansion also attests to the growing role of Singapore as a global Asia hub where multinational companies (MNCs), global mid-sized companies and Asian firms innovate, manage and integrate their Asian and global business from here," Lim said.

The new facility will support ongoing initiatives that HP Labs are a part of in the island-state, including Open Cirrus, in which the company and partners Intel, Yahoo and Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority, are working to establish an open source testbed comprising multiple data centers worldwide, focusing on cloud computing research and education.

HP is also part of Alatum, a grid computing platform that offers pay-per-use, on-demand services such as computing power, storage and applications, over the Web. The platform currently has over 70 customers.