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By Eric Auchard
LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - IBM aims to expand thenumber of data centres it offers clients around the world by 25percent to meet fast-rising demand for internet-based services,after what a company executive said has been a "breakthroughyear" in 2014 for its cloud computing business.
IBM has quadrupled the number of cloud data facilities itoffers around the world to 49 in the past 18 months, respondingin part to laws requiring the local retention of data followingrevelations over U.S. government Web surveillance as well as increased corporate compliance rules.
The company said on Wednesday it has now struck apartnership with data centre provider Equinix Inc fornine more cloud centres in Australia, France, Japan, Singapore,The Netherlands and the United States.
In addition the company is opening up three new cloudcomputer facilities of its own in Germany, Mexico and Japan.
The information technology giant, which is contending with achange in its classic business mix of software and outsourcingservices as corporate clients focus on reaching their customersvia the Internet and mobile phones, said its own cloud businessis having a banner year.
"We have had a really good year. We would call it abreakthrough year in cloud," Angel Luiz Diaz, vice president incharge of IBM's cloud computing business, told Reuters.
IBM's cloud revenue amounted to $4.4 billion in 2013 and wasup by 50 percent in the first nine months of this year, itreported in October, making it one of IBM's fastest-growingbusinesses, although it still accounts for only a fraction ofthe $94 billion in total revenues which IBM is expected byanalysts to generate this year.
Diaz declined to comment on the company's performance duringthe fourth quarter but IBM has announced multi-year deals inrecent weeks worth a total of more than $4 billion that arefuelling the company's expansion in data centres.
The company's cloud computing services let companies mixclassic computing jobs with new ways of working, a twist on thelargely consumer-facing cloud services made popular by Amazon's Web Services, Google and Microsoft.
IBM, along with rivals Hewlett-Packard and EMC's VMware, offer "hybrid cloud" services that let customersrun key business data on private, internal networks along withconsumer-facing public cloud systems.
Such hybrids provide companies with certain speed, securityand regulatory advantages but at similar costs as public clouds, said industry analyst Charles King of the firm Pund-IT. Mixedsystems also let customers move their existing business softwareto the Internet over several years rather than in one big leap.
So far this quarter IBM has set major deals with airlineLufthansa, Dutch bank ABN AMRO, advertising giant WPP, audio electronics maker Woox Innovations in Hong Kongand the Dow Water arm of Dow Chemical.
IBM has also put in place a variety of technologypartnership deals with SAP, Microsoft, Tencent, AT&T and Intel to give its customersmore flexibility in running other major business systems on IBMcloud networks.
IBM also said on Wednesday it had reached a cloud servicesdeal with National Express Group Plc to enable theUK-based bus and trains operator to offer commutersup-to-the-minute train schedules and what it said would beBritain's first postcode-to-postcode journey planner. (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
