IBM to launch first Australian SoftLayer DC in Sept

IBM will switch on its first Australian SoftLayer data centre in Melbourne next month as part of its US$1.2 billion ($1.29 billion) investment in its global cloud services capacity.

The new data centre will have capacity for more than 15,000 physical servers and will be designed to meet Australian organisations’ demand for in-country cloud services.

It will offer the full suite of SoftLayer cloud services, including physical and virtual servers, storage and networking.

IBM plans to open a second Australian SoftLayer data centre in Sydney later this year. SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby said Australia is “an important market” for the company and its parent.

“We are seeing a strong appetite for cloud in this market, particularly towards the hybrid cloud model,” he said. “We are investing in Australia [to help] further accelerate cloud adoption amongst a new breed of organisations that is constantly ready and responding to change.”

IBM recently forged a partnership with Australian IT distributor Avnet Technology Solutions aimed at building a business partner network for SoftLayer services in the market.

The Australian data centres form part of IBM’s recent commitment to invest US$1.2 billion to expand its global cloud footprint. As part of the project IBM is opening 15 new data centres worldwide in markets including the US, Japan and China.

Image courtesy of Otota DATA under CC