CLOUD COMPUTING

New Data Center in Japan Signals Rising Cloud Adoption in the Asia-Pacific

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 07-19-11 | Comments

Although businesses in Europe and the United States are the biggest users of cloud computing, this technology is rapidly spreading around the globe. The opening of a cloud-computing center in Japan could lead to growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

The victory Sunday by its women�s soccer team has put Japan on the top of the international map in the sport. Now, the country is trying for bragging rights in another area: cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a quickly growing industry, with North American and European businesses leading the way. But the Asia-Pacific marketplace might not be far behind. To help fuel growth in this region, IBM has announced the opening of a new Cloud Data Center in Japan to help clients optimize their cloud performance.

The new center is located in Makuhari, Japan, a city with a massive convention space, Makuhari Messe, that attracts millions of enterprise customers each year�many of whom will likely benefit from the new IBM initiative. The Cloud Data Center will bring SmartCloud services to clients, allowing them to carry a wide variety of data to both the public and the private cloud.

The Cloud Data Center will offer clients an unusually flexible amount of options that combine features of public, private and hybrid clouds. Users can create a custom cloud, depending on their specific needs�from simple Web infrastructure to complicated enterprise processes.

In determining the needs of business, experts at the Cloud Data Center will consider key elements of clients� cloud usage, including technical issues like security, availability, performance and technology platforms. Enterprise fundamentals, including management support, deployment and payment/billing, will also be considered to create optimal customized options.

According to IBM, offering this wide range of choices �allows customers to expand production along with other workloads like Websites, batch processing, development and test, and other initiatives while reducing deployment time from days to minutes via automation and rapid provisioning with over 30 percent reduction in costs versus traditional environments.�

Thirteen global cloud labs are already based in countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including China, India, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.

In addition to the Cloud Data Center, IBM is also opening a data center for its cloud-based collaboration services, LotusLive, later this year. The goal of this center will be to help Japanese businesses more smoothly transition to the cloud.

Currently, Australia is leading the way of cloud adoption in the Asia-Pacific, with over 40 percent of its businesses using the cloud. IBM�s opening of the Cloud Data Center in Japan could, however, signal a new leader of cloud adoption in this region.