IBM has announced a massive expansion of its cloud computing capabilities, spending around $400 million to create two ultra-sophisticated delivery centers in North Carolina and Tokyo that will power the cloud-like computing model that the next era of computing will demand.

IBM will spend $360 million to build its most sophisticated, state-of-the-art data center at its facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Built from the ground-up with IBM's New Enterprise Data Center design principles, the center will provide businesses unparalleled access to immense pools of Internet-scale computing technology capable of supporting cloud environments.

The company said this new data center is a key component in its Project Big Green initiative to increase energy efficiency in the data center as companies balance escalating energy costs with the requirement to handle a rapidly rising amount of data.

IBM will renovate an existing building on its RTP campus with goals of reusing 95% of the original building's shell, recycling 90% of materials from original building, with 20% of newly purchased material to be from recycled products. This will help create one of the most technologically advanced and energy efficient data centers in the world.

The company plans to install high density computing systems utilizing virtualization technology, which reduces energy costs by running multiple software applications on the same servers. The center's mechanical system design is 50% more efficient than the industry average, equaling a reduction of approximately 31,799 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

IBM's new cloud computing center in Tokyo, Japan will provide large enterprise customers, universities and government agencies immediate access to experts who can help them deploy cloud computing environments.

Cloud computing gives organizations the opportunity to remotely access a vast network of computers that can be tapped on-demand to deliver the kinds of services that consumers will insist upon.

The Tokyo cloud center will be linked to the new Raleigh center and IBM's seven other cloud centers throughout the world, to help clients pilot cloud infrastructures and applications globally.

These two new IBM centers are the manufacturing plants of services and information delivery of the future. In addition to these centers, IBM offers a number of solutions to help clients deliver cloud-enabled services to their customers, an initiative dubbed Blue Cloud. Built on IBM's expertise in leading massive-scale computing initiatives, Blue Cloud is a set of hardware, software and services that allows IBM clients to offer personal and business services from remote, centralized servers, the "cloud", that share computing resources and bandwidth, to any device, anywhere.

With more than 200 full-time researchers and more than $100 million invested in cloud computing over the next three years, the new centers in North Carolina and Tokyo will be key hubs in IBM's effort to enable immediate access to the Cloud.


Shalini /ITvoir Network