Sep 24, 2008 : IBM Opens Four More Cloud Centers

📅 September 24, 2008 - In an effort to further develop its already massive - and rather well-reputed - cloud computing initiative, IBM (ibm.com) announced on Wednesday it has opened four new cloud computing centers in emerging markets.


According to the company's most recent announcement, the new centers are in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Bangalore, India; Seoul, Korea and Hanoi, Vietnam, where there is "an increasing demand for Internet-based computing models and skills to help companies compete in highly competitive environments."

This launch now puts 13 cloud computing centers under IBM's well-established belt, with the first European one being launched in Dublin, Ireland in March. The company most recently launched its ninth cloud computing center in Tokyo, Japan last month.

And earlier this year in June, IBM launched two cloud computing centers in Johannesburg, South Africa and Beijing, China.

"At a time when organizations of all sizes are facing extreme data overload, skyrocketing energy costs, increasingly complex regulatory requirements and competition from more nimble economies, cloud computing is emerging as a significant shift across all industries," says the company.

IBM touts some of the benefits to this type of computing model by highlighting its ability to enable users to remotely access a vast computing resource that can be tapped on-demand to deliver applications and services as they're requested. Cloud computing also improves energy efficiency, says IBM, because of its "principle as a shared infrastructure."

Energy efficiency is another area IBM has been putting a lot of focus on recently, as exemplified with its $1 billion "Project Big Green" initiative.

For nearly a year, IBM has been building cloud computing infrastructures for clients around the world and establishing cloud projects in IBM cloud computing environments. The centers are available for clients across multiple industries such as banking, telecommunications, government, education and hosting services.

In Vietnam, universities, government ministries and telecommunication vendors are leaders in adopting new technology such as cloud computing, which helps to create new services, says the technology giant.

In Korea, the new center will provide architecture skills and pilot projects for industries such as banking, telecommunications, government, education, and information technology hosting services.

In India, clients such as mid-market vendors, universities, telecommunications companies and government bodies will be able to access the center for the resources they need to pilot cloud infrastructures and applications, and deliver new services to their customers.

And clients in Brazil will use the new center to generate business such as massive scale collaboration programs, says IBM.

"Cloud computing is emerging as a fundamental change in how IT is managed and delivered," says Willy Chiu, VP of IBM High Performance On Demand Solutions. "It is a key element of the evolution to a New Enterprise Data Center, and a powerful tool for efficient operations, especially in growth economies."

IBM says it has dedicated more than 200 full-time researchers and over $100 million over three years in cloud computing. IBM launched its version of cloud computing "Blue Cloud" in November 2007 and describes it as "a collection of enabling technologies that is used to create cloud computing experiences for customers in data center, hosting service and other cloud environments."