IBM latest vendor to announce UK datacentres
Vendor to treble UK datacentres from two to six
IBM has announced four new datacentres in the UK as it follows AWS, Microsoft and Google in strengthening its presence in Britain.
IBM will treble its UK datacentres from two to six, with a facility opening in Fareham at the end of December, and a second coming in space leased from Ark Data Centres. Details were not disclosed of the two other datacentres.
Earlier this year Microsoft launched UK datacentres in September; Google followed suit by announcing a London datacentre later that month; and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is set to enter the UK early next year.
"By adding four new cloud datacentres in the UK, IBM is giving local businesses an easy route to the cloud, helping them quickly innovate and respond to market demands," said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM Cloud.
"IBM is continuing to invest in high-growth areas, offering clients higher-value cloud data services such as Watson [IBM's artificial intelligence technology] and blockchain running on our cloud infrastructure that delivers world-class scalability, performance and security."
TechMarketView research director Kate Hanaghan said in a blog post that she does not expect IBM to take on the likes AWS head-on.
"It's an interesting move, especially given that AWS has been ramping up its sales to government via the G-Cloud," she said. "IBM's aim is not, however, to compete directly with the generic infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings from the hyperscale public cloud providers.
"The infrastructure inside the datacentres, which will be standard across all the facilities, will give access to bare metal servers, Bluemix [IBM's Platform-as-a-service offering], and Watson, Internet of Things, [and] Blockchain platforms.
"IBM is endeavouring to steer clients beyond generic IaaS towards cloud-based platforms that support the delivery of new types of services. This is critical for both competitive differentiation and profits."
IBM backs UK despite Brexit blues
Sebastian Krause, IBM's general manager for cloud services, told Reuters that the announcement is a sign of confidence in the UK's ecomony despite Brexit uncertainty.
"UK customers truly understand the capabilities of cloud to drive innovation, to be more flexible on their business model, to have better insight for decision making, and to deliver better customer service," he said.
"Everyone has concluded the UK economy will continue to be very strong and there will be significant opportunities with or without Brexit."