IBM to open new cloud data centre in India

US-based technology services company IBM plans to open a new cloud services data centre in India in the current fiscal year.

The move is a part of company’s $1.2 billion worldwide cloud investment program announced in January this year. With this, IBM would have a total of 40 centres by the end of this year. It currently has 25 centres, of which 13 came through cloud computer player Softlayer, which IBM acquired for $2-billion last year.

According to IBM country head for cloud computing Vamsi Charan Mudiam, the India centre would allow its partner ecosystem to design better services, client customisation besides enhancing the reach of business.

“We would finalise the location for the Indian data centre once the due diligence is completed. The centre aims to capture the sharply growing domestic cloud services market,” Mudiam told reporters here today. IBM SoftLayer offers clients the ability to choose a cloud environment and location that best suits their business needs and provides visibility and transparency to where data reside, control of data security and its placement.

IBM also plans to have data centres in all major geographies and financial centres with plans to expand in the West Asia and Africa in 2015. It has acquired 17 cloud companies since 2007 and invested $7 billion in building a high-value cloud portfolio.

Without giving a specific mention of sectors that were showing sharp cloud services growth in India, he said workloads including e-mail collaboration, data back-up, archival services and social media analytics were the standouts. Some of its cloud service customers in India include telecom major Airtel, Tata Motors, HCL, Thermax and Luminous.

The market potential for cloud services in India is slated to be around $4 billion by 2017. The overall public cloud services market would clock a 30 per cent growth this year to touch $550 million, up from $423 million in 2013, according to a recent Gartner report.