IBM spending $1.4bn to expand cloud reach

IBM has pledged to invest about $1.37 billion (US$1.2 billion) to expand its global cloud reach, with plans to open up 15 new data centres worldwide in 2014.

The new openings will give IBM a cloud footprint that spans 40 data centres in 15 countries across five continents - North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The company plans to expand into the Middle East and Africa in 2015.

The US$1.2 billion figure represents a substantial chunk of the roughly US$4 billion the vendor averages in capital expenditure per year, according to Bloomberg.

IBM acquired cloud computing company SoftLayer Technologies for around $2.3 billion (US$2 billion) in 2013, adding 13 global data centres to its portfolio. IBM said it has served nearly 2400 new cloud clients since last year’s acquisition.

The company now plans to make SoftLayer infrastructure the foundation for its cloud portfolio worldwide.

IBM recently established the new IBM Watson Group, a business unit dedicated to developing cloud-delivered cognitive and big data offerings. As part of the project, the Watson natural language computer system will also be deployed on SoftLayer.

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