IBM Rolls Out $1.2 Billion Investment in the Cloud

Big Blue has big plans for global cloud services.

IBM has announced that it is investing over $1.2 Billion for a new initiative to expand its global cloud business. The company will deliver cloud services from 40 data centers in 15 countries on five continents. New data centers will open in China, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Canada, Mexico, and Texas.
With this latest move, IBM hopes to build upon the investment it made last year by buying cloud vendor SoftLayer for $2 Billion. According to IBM Global Technology chief Erich Clementi, "Today's announcement is another major step in driving a global expansion of IBM's cloud footprint and helping clients drive transformation."
According to the announcement, IBM plans to use SoftLayer as a foundation for a "wide ranging cloud portfolio," offering IBM's extensive middleware resource to cloud customers on a global scale. The company hopes to be earning $7 Billion in cloud revenue by 2015.