IBM to address cloud services growth needs, increase data center

IBM executives said 2014 was a "breakthrough year" for IBM's cloud computing business, Reuters reported. To cope with the rapidly growing demand for cloud services, the company plans to add 25% of its data centers globally.

Over the past 18 months, IBM has increased the number of its global cloud data facilities by 3 times to 49, in part to respond to rules requiring local retention of data following the exposure of the NSA Prism gate event, as well as more corporate compliance rules.

In Wednesday, the company said it had worked with data center provider Equinix to set up 9 new cloud data centers in Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States. In addition, IBM will set up 3 new private cloud computing centers in Germany, Mexico and Japan.

The IT giant said it was a bumper year for its cloud business.

Angel Luiz Diaz, IBM's vice president for cloud computing, said, "We have been doing very well this year, what we call the Cloud business breakthrough year," Angel Louise Diaz. ”

IBM last year's cloud business revenue of 4.4 billion U.S. dollars, the first nine months of this year, the business revenue also rose 50%. Cloud Business is one of IBM's fastest-growing businesses, although it still accounts for only a fraction of IBM's total revenue. Analysts expect the company's total revenue to reach $94 billion this year.

Diaz declined to comment on the company's fourth-quarter performance, but in recent weeks IBM has announced several deals, worth more than $4 billion trillion. It also drives the company to add data centers.

IBM's "Hybrid cloud" service allows customers to run key business data on private internal networks, as well as to operate consumer-facing public cloud systems.

Pund industry analyst Charles King points out that this hybrid service can give companies a specific advantage in speed, safety and regulation, but at a cost similar to the public cloud. Hybrid systems can also allow customers to gradually transfer existing business software to the network over a period of several years, rather than completing a one-time transition.

This quarter, IBM has been with Lufthansa Germany, ABN Amro, advertising giant WPP, audio electronics manufacturers wOOx Innovations, Dow labeled reached a big deal. IBM has also reached a number of technical collaborations with SAP, Microsoft, Tencent, At&t and Intel to give its customers greater flexibility in running other large business systems on the IBM Cloud Network.

The company also said in Wednesday that it had reached a cloud service deal with the UK's National Express, which would enable the UK bus and train operators to provide real-time train timetables for passengers, as well as the UK's first travel planning tool to reach its doorstep. (Hao Hui)