Armonk, New York - (The Hosting News) - August 11, 2008 - Hosted application solutions provider, IBM, plans to expand its cloud computing capabilities, through an investment of nearly $400m, with the opening of data centers in the US and Japan.

Willy Chiu, Vice President, IBM High Performance On Demand Solutions remarked, "Cloud computing is fundamentally about re-engineering the world's computing infrastructure, to enable game-changing — even life-changing — applications. To IBM, cloud computing is much more than the normal evolution of a data center."

The centers are part of IBM's Project Big Green initiative aimed at increasing energy efficiency in the data center. IBM plans to employ 200 full-time researchers and invest more than $100m in cloud computing over the next three years. In March, it launched its first European cloud computing center in Dublin, Ireland, and in June it established centers in Beijing, China and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bob Greenberg, General Manager of IT optimization at IBM noted, "The new data center in North Carolina is part of IBM's commitment to construct the world's most advanced data centers. This is the latest example of IBM's deep history of innovation in North Carolina. When we open for business in late 2009, the IBM data center in Research Triangle Park will be a strategic location for our outsourcing business for years to come."

Cloud computing lets organizations remotely access a vast network of computers that can be tapped on-demand. In the U.S., IBM will spend $360 million to build a state-of-the-art data center at its facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The company will renovate a building on its campus, aiming to reuse 95 percent of the original building's shell and recycle 90 percent of the materials from the original building.

The new cloud computing center in Tokyo will provide large companies, universities and government agencies immediate access to experts who can help them deploy cloud computing environments. Both new centers will link to seven other IBM cloud centers around the world.

Data centers are the backbone of information technology (IT) infrastructure for businesses and other organizations, with powerful servers and storage systems running technology including software applications, email and web sites. IBM owns and operates more than 8 million square feet of data center space — more than any other company in the world.

For more information about IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com.

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