IBM has announced the opening of four new cloud data centres across the US, UK and Australia to bring its global data centre footprint to 60.
At the start of the year, IBM revealed that it would aim to triple its cloud data centre capacity in 2017. IBM has located two of the new data centres in London which now gives the company five data centres in the UK.
The third data centre facility opens in San Jose, California, with the fourth located in Sydney, Australia. This makes IBM’s 23rd data centre in the US and the fourth in Australia.
John Considine, GM for cloud infrastructure services, IBM said: “IBM operates cloud data centres in nearly every major market around the world, ensuring that our clients can keep their data local for a variety of reasons- including performance, security or regulatory requirements.”
The announcement comes just a day after IBM reported its second quarterly results, which revealed another decline in revenues. Revenue has fallen by 5.1%, which brings the company’s value down to $8.41 billion.
Read more:IBM share price suffers after revenue falls for 21st consecutive quarter
Although, cloud revenue increased by 15 percent year-over-year with an account of $3.9bn in revenue, IBM making the decision to deliver stronger on its cloud strategy comes at the best time in the company’s progress.
Considine said: “We continue to expand our cloud capacity in response to growing demand from clients who require cloud infrastructure and cognitive services to help them compete on a global scale.”
In April, the company opened four cloud data centres in the US which were delivered as part of its ambitious data centre expansion plans for 2017 and even though the quarterly results show some sign of a shortfall, with a decline of 2.5% in revenue.
According to ZDNet, investors are still waiting for IBM’s investments in “strategic imperatives” such as AI and cloud computing to show through in company earnings.
Martin Schroeter, SVP and CFO, IBM said he expects an increase in revenues in the second half of the year based on the new cloud expansions.
In a statement, Schroeter said: “Enterprises will move to cognitive on the cloud with someone they trust, who has leading tools and industry expertise and a data model and business model consistent with their goals. That is the IBM Cloud plus Watson.”
IBM has made some progress with the advancement of its cloud strategy over the past year, as shown by the growing cloud strategy over the year. Whilst its AI and deep learning business has also grown positively. However, the growth in these categories have not accounted for enough to prevent the decline in IBM’s revenue.
