IBM Gets Cloud Computer Fever

Chicago (IL) - IBM, on the heels of an announcement earlier this week by HP, Intel and Yahoo to build a huge cloud computing playground for researchers, reached deeper into its pockets to invest in new cloud computing centers in the United States and Japan. How deep, you ask ? $400 million.

The company plans to spend the bulk of that money on a new cloud computing data center in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. Big Blue says this facility will be developing using its own data center design principles and that it "will provide businesses unparalleled access to immense pools of Internet-scale computing technology capable of supporting cloud environments." Plans are also in the works to make this center extremely eco-friendly, including renovating an existing IBM building and using virtualization technology to run multiple software applications on the same servers.

The other center being built is in Tokyo. It will be there to provide large organizations "immediate access to experts who can help them deploy cloud computing environments." IBM feels this center will be significant because it is the first client facing center in a market such as Tokyo, meaning it will offer well established enterprises greater flexibility in developing new kinds of services requiring a network of computers to help create.

Other cloud centers IBM has worked on include Europe’s first Cloud Computing Center in Dublin, Ireland in March and two more centers in Beijing, China and Johannesburg, South Africa in June.