IBM opens Sydney SoftLayer data centre

IBM is chasing Microsoft Azure by launching a second Australian point-of-presence (PoP) for its SoftLayer cloud business.

The company opened its Melbourne facility - at a Digital Realty-owned site in Deer Park - last August as part of a $1.2 billion investment in cloud globally.

At the time of the Melbourne announcement, IBM said it would also open a Sydney facility by October.

IBM did not respond to request for detail on the delayed launch of the Sydney centre.

It also declined to confirm which co-location provider it had partnered with in the city, beyond that it was “leasing space within an existing facility”.

Multiple industry sources have told iTnews IBM has partnered with Global Switch to house its SoftLayer infrastructure in Ultimo.

Like its Melbourne counterpart, the Sydney facility will host SoftLayer’s infrastructure-as-a-service offerings including bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage, security services and networking. SoftLayer has built its facilities around the world according to a standard “pod” design. 

The two facilities are among 40 that IBM plans to include in a cloud footprint spanning 15 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia at a cost of $1.2 billion. It aimed to establish 15 of those new data centre sites last year.  

IBM acquired SoftLayer 18 months ago in a deal valued at $US2 billion.