IBM to open S'pore cloud facility

SINGAPORE--IBM has announced plans to invest US$38 million to establish a new data center here dedicated to servicing its cloud computing customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Slated for launch next month, the facility will be Big Blue's first in the region and will deliver its portfolio of public and private cloud services including test and development. The vendor already has four similar centers in Germany, Canada and the United States, as well as a global network of 13 cloud labs which objective is to promote cloud adoption and concept.

Andrew Sotiropoulos, IBM's Asia-Pacific general manager of global technology services, said in a statement Monday the investment is representative of increased demand in cloud services from IBM's clientele in the region.

Citing figures from research firm IDC, IBM said cloud services in the Asia-Pacific will grow an average 40 percent a year to reach US$4.9 billion in 2014, driven by the emergence of regional data centers providing the infrastructure needed to deliver cloud services.

Elaborating on the announcement, a Singapore-based IBM spokesperson told ZDNet Asia the vendor is seeing demand for its test-and-development public cloud service, which will be one of the first offerings to be made available at the new data center. She said this cloud service is designed for companies that do not wish to invest in hardware equipment to test and develop new products and deployments.

She added that cloud services are relevant for all vertical industries and are particularly attractive in growth markets such as the Asia-Pacific region. The new data center will "cater to anyone in Asia-Pacific who needs to wants to access infrastructure as a cloud model", she said.