IBM invests $400M to sell cloud resources to customers

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IBM announced on Friday that they are putting $400M into two new data centers in the US and Japan: $360M for what it calls “its most sophisticated” data center in Research Triangle Park, NC; and $40M in a new data center in Japan.

The two centers will be used to sell hosted IT services to customers

IBM logoThat mega-complex [the 60,000 sq ft RTP facility] and a new site in Tokyo will serve as the hubs for IBM’s seven other cloud computing centers worldwide.

With cloud computing, customers run their information technology systems over the Internet. They pay usage fees to tap remote servers, computer networks and other infrastructure hosted by IBM or some other provider. By leasing computer power in the Internet “cloud,” users can cut IT costs and focus more on their own businesses.

…Now, the two new cloud centers will run programs for IBM customers, says Jay Subrahmonia, IBM’s director of high performance on-demand solutions. “We’re delivering cloud-computing technology to enable enterprises to solve their business challenges,” she said.

Of course this follows the recent Intel, HP, Yahoo! announcement (see the HPCwire article I wrote here), existing services from Google and Amazon, and interest from many, many other companies. For more context you might find this article from IBD interesting.