IBM’s SoftLayer Now Available in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is an epicenter for business in Asia. It only makes sense that IBM would extend its SoftLayer offering into this market first. As a response to Microsoft Azure’s announcement that the popular public cloud service is now available in China, IBM has decided to offer its core cloud platform in China as well. IBM expects China to be a key vertical as the company looks to capitalize on its multibillion dollar investment in the cloud. SoftLayer services will be available in Hong Kong at the end of April 2014.
SoftLayer CEO Lane Crosby was quoted as saying, “As part of IBM’s expanding global cloud footprint, we are launching a new data center in Hong Kong.” Crosby continued on to say, “This effort is designed to enable clients to benefit from the power and performance of secure cloud services built on open standards, providing the elasticity needed by the fast-growing, entrepreneurial businesses that Hong Kong is known for.”
IBM goes on to mention that the datacenter in Hong Kong is slated to have 15,000 bare metal servers on site. This point of presence only strengthens the SoftLayer brand, which has traditionally performed well in the Asia-Pacific rim. Having a presence in Hong Kong only adds to SoftLayer’s portfolio, which features datacenters in Tokyo and Singapore. SoftLayer’s proposed SLA for the region says that they are seeking a 40ms or less ping time. SoftLayer’s datacenter design will feature multiple Tier-1 connections which should keep network latency to a bare minimum.
SoftLayer’s current clientele in the region includes Tiket.com, Distil Networks and 6waves. The presence in Hong Kong will only help strengthen the brand recognition of IBM’s cloud services. SoftLayer gives administrators total control over a public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure. Administrators can remotely manage an entire organizations cloud from a simple dashboard located inside of SoftLayer. SoftLayer’s platform is constantly maturing and IBM looks to continue to expand into Asia as it is becoming clear that China is the next frontier for the cloud.
