IBM invests $ 1.2 billion in global cloud computing

The other day, IBM announced its intention to invest a very large amount of $ 1.2 billion in cloud technologies at the global level. One of the goals is a developed network of technology centers that allow customers to conduct all the necessary operations in the “cloud”, thus managing data and their own business.

In 2014, IBM cloud services will be available to customers in 40 centers located in 15 countries on 5 continents, including North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. New centers are planned to open in China, Washington, Hong Kong, London, Japan, India, Canada, Mexico City and Dallas. The goal of global expansion is to find and develop new markets due to the growing demand for high-quality cloud services and technologies. As part of this initiative, IBM plans to deploy four or more data centers in each of the key regions, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, North America, and expand its presence in the Middle East and Africa by 2015.
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According to preliminary estimates, the global cloud computing market will reach $ 200 billion by 2020 (1). This will be possible thanks to the desire of commercial organizations and government agencies to use cloud services for business development, increasing sales, creating products, managing supply chains and transforming the business model.



“IBM continues to actively invest in high-growth industries,” commented Eric Clementi, senior vice president, IBM Global Technology Services. - Last year, IBM made a major investment and acquired SoftLayer for $ 2 billion, and thus significantly expanded its cloud solutions portfolio. The new initiative is another step towards expanding the global network of cloud technology centers to help customers accelerate business transformation. ”

Thanks to new investments, IBM will be able to meet the requirements of customers who are increasingly using cloud technologies for business transformation. At the same time, IBM SoftLayer offers customers the opportunity to choose the cloud environment that best suits their business objectives and data management preferences. Such capabilities provide customers with complete control and exceptional data transparency.

Creating a new data center will allow IBM SoftLayer to provide high-quality services in the shortest possible time. Local cloud centers will provide customers with unique access to data, bypassing the need to wait for a response from geographically distributed servers. SoftLayer's high-performance private network also offers the ability to create applications that do not require connection to a public network to connect to servers located in different countries, and avoids failures caused by third-party traffic on a public network.

“Customer care is the key to expanding our business globally,” said Cloudant CEO Derek Schoettle. - Our task is to create a common foundation for the functioning of mobile and web applications. And to solve this problem, we must distribute these applications around the perimeter of the network. And in this case, the geographical expansion of IBM SoftLayer is of great importance for the Cloudant business. IBM's investment in developing a data center network will help not only the development of our company's business, but also thousands of our customers around the world. ”

With the continuous spread of mobile and social data, such automation of processes and speed of access to information make the SoftLayer infrastructure ideal for various tasks of customers around the world.

"Cloud computing is a promising area for venture capital investment," said Ann Winblad, co-founder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. “By investing in a cloud-based ecosystem, IBM not only provides a multitude of organizations with opportunities to master cloud technologies and accelerate innovative development, but also helps young companies enter the market as soon as possible.”

SoftLayer as the basis of the growing portfolio of IBM cloud services

IBM is constantly improving its business model, investing in promising fast-growing markets and helping customers to follow the concept of innovative development. Since the acquisition of SoftLayer in 2013, IBM has served approximately 2,400 customers.

The main task of SoftLayer is to create a global platform for providing infrastructure as a service and reducing unproductive loss of customer time. The infrastructure offers a scalable and reliable system for providing cloud services, covering a wide range of middleware and solutions. SoftLayer infrastructure flexibility and global presence will also accelerate the development and deployment of mobile, analytical and social solutions.

Last week, IBM announced the formation of the IBM Watson Group , a new business unit that will develop and commercially implement cloud cognitive technologies. As part of this initiative, IBM plans to use Watson based on the SoftLayer cloud infrastructure.

About IBM Cloud Computing

IBM is a global leader in cloud computing. With unique industry expertise and unmatched cloud solutions, the company helps more than 30,000 customers worldwide. Currently, IBM's portfolio includes more than 100 SaaS solutions, as well as 1,560 patents, the company employs thousands of experts who help customers transform business, and the service network consists of 40 new data centers. Since 2007, IBM has invested more than 7 billion US dollars and made 15 acquisitions in order to accelerate the development of cloud initiatives and expand the portfolio of cloud services. With a public cloud, IBM processes more than 5.5 million transactions daily.