IBM (NYSE: IBM) aims to expand the number of data centres it offers clients around the world by 25% to meet fast-rising demand for internet-based services, after what a company executive said has been a "breakthrough year" in 2014 for its cloud computing business.
The company known as "Big Blue" has quadrupled the number of cloud data facilities it offers around the world to 49 in the past 18 months, responding in part to laws requiring the local retention of data following revelations over U.S. government Web surveillance as well as increased corporate compliance rules.
The company said on Wednesday it has now struck a partnership with data center provider Equinix Inc for nine more cloud centers in Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, The Netherlands and the United States.
In addition, the company is opening up three new cloud computer facilities of its own in Germany, Mexico and Japan.
The information technology giant, which is contending with a change in its classic business mix of software and outsourcing services as corporate clients focus on reaching their customers via the Internet and mobile phones, said its own cloud business is having a banner year.
IBM's cloud revenue amounted to $4.4 billion U.S. in 2013 and was up by 50% in the first nine months of this year, it reported in October, making it one of IBM's fastest-growing businesses, although it still accounts for only a fraction of the $94 billion U.S. in total revenues which IBM is expected by analysts to generate this year.
IBM stock improved $3.00, or nearly 2%, by midday Thursday over Wednesday's close, to $154.93 U.S., within a 52-week trading range from $150.50 U.S. to $199.21 U.S.
