IBM to launch second data centre in India
Fri 22 May 2015
IBM has announced its plans to establish a second Indian data centre in response to increasing domestic demand from financial services and government agencies.
“We are looking at setting up another public cloud data centre. As you know, sectors like government and financial services prefer their data residing within the country,” said managing director Vanitha Narayanan.
IBM has not disclosed investment details or an estimated timeframe for the project.
The new facility will join Big Blue’s Mumbai cloud data centre, which it announced in October last year. The Airoli-based centre measures over 30,000 sq ft and guarantees uptime of 99.99% across any IT environment such as public, private and hybrid cloud deployments, according to IBM.
The global tech giant’s cloud and data centre expansion plans address customer data sovereignty concerns following revelations about extensive government surveillance programmes.
Lingraju Sawkar, director of integrated technology services and global technology services at IBM India explained that the new Indian data centres will “help usher businesses into the cloud era while delivering the levels of resiliency and security that allow them to experience the benefits of this new environment while ensuring they remain protected.”
IBM owns data centre sites worldwide, including facilities in London, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, Toronto, Dallas, Raleigh and Paris. The total investment equals $1.2 billion (approx. £800mn) across its global portfolio.
The U.S.-based company has invested more than $7 billion in 17 acquisitions in its cloud push over the past eight years.
However IBM’s latest quarterly results display its twelfth consecutive revenue decline, with its net income from the first quarter of 2015 down 5% to $2.4 billion (approx. £1.6bn).
CEO Ginni Rometty explained that the disappointing results was due to the company’s change of direction: “Our focus on higher value through portfolio transformation and investment in key areas of the business drove continued margin expansion.”
