IBM to Continue Data Centre Investment Despite Brexit

IBM has announced its plan to open four new data centres in the UK, in response to increasing commercial and public sector demand for its Cloud services.

Once complete, the investment will take the number of its UK facilities to six. The first of the new data centres will open in Fareham in December in a space leased from a third-part provider. The following three data centres are all scheduled to open in 2017.

“By adding four new cloud data centres in the UK, IBM is giving local businesses an easy route to the cloud, helping them quickly innovate and respond to market demands,” said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM Cloud, in a statement.

“IBM is continuing to invest in high growth areas, offering clients higher-value cloud data services such as Watson and blockchain running on our cloud infrastructure that delivers world-class scalability, performance and security.”

The decision to expand its cloud offering was made before the Brexit vote took place but IBM’s general manger for cloud services in Europe, Sebastian Krause, said he saw no reason for the company to revisit the plans.

“UK customers truly understand the capabilities of cloud to drive innovation, to be more flexible on their business model, to have better insight for decision making, and to deliver better customer service,” Krause said.

“Everyone has concluded the UK economy will continue to be very strong and there will be significant opportunities with or without Brexit.”