- IBM Opens New Cloud Data Center in Korea
with SK Holdings C&C to propel local innovation and
competitiveness
- New Facility is the ninth IBM Cloud Data
Center across Asia-Pacific
ARMONK, N.Y. and SEOUL, Korea, Aug. 25, 2016 /CNW/
-- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of a new IBM
Cloud Data Center in Korea, in collaboration with SK Holdings
C&C. Located outside of Seoul
in Pangyo, the new data center is designed to support growing cloud
adoption and customer demand across the country.
According to IDC, a leading information technology research
firm, the public cloud services market in Korea is expected to grow
from $445 million in 2015 to
approximately $1B in
2019.i
The new facility in Pangyo is IBM's ninth Cloud Data Center in
the Asia-Pacific region, and part
of the company's growing global network of 47 Cloud Data Centers.
With access to a local on ramp for IBM and SK Holdings' Cloud
services, Korean enterprises and start-ups can accelerate their
digital transformation, business innovation and global
expansion.
"A key part of our cloud strategy is to fuel new ecosystems to
spur innovation and collaborate with companies who understand the
local market." said Robert LeBlanc,
senior vice president, IBM Cloud. "That's why we chose to
partner with SK Holdings C&C in Korea. Together, we are able to
bring the local expertise, platform and data services that gives
Korean customers the ability to compete on a global scale."
IBM's network of Cloud Data Centers offers both global reach and
the opportunity to keep data local to client locations -- whether
for performance, security or flexibility. Clients in Korea are
expected to benefit from faster time-to-market, improved
performance, support for industrial-strength public and hybrid
cloud, and access to IBM's global network of 47 Cloud Data Centers
so they can manage their data more securely and efficiently across
global markets to drive expansion.
Modeled after IBM's standardized pod design, the new facility in
Korea will have the capacity for thousands of physical servers and
offer the full range of cloud infrastructure services, including
bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage, security services and
networking. With services deployed on demand and full remote access
and control, customers can create their ideal public, private, or
hybrid cloud environments.
New Cloud Data Center Builds on Existing IBM and SK Holdings
Partnership
The new Cloud Data Center builds on the existing
partnership between IBM and SK Holdings C&C, with more than 20
local companies already using their joint hybrid cloud capabilities
across the gaming, IT, manufacturing and retail industries. As
Korean companies increasingly look to extend the value of their
existing systems to the cloud, the two companies anticipate a high
demand for hybrid cloud services with the opening of the new
facility.
"Companies all over the world are seeking for new business and
profit opportunity throughout digital transformation," said Jung-ho
Park, CEO of SK Holdings C&C. "The new Cloud Data Center
provides one-stop cloud converting service of existing IT system
and infrastructure, and become the base camp to support digital
innovation for customers' businesses by converging digital
technologies such as IoT, Big data and AI."
Growing the Cloud Ecosystem in Korea
The new data
center will further accelerate the commitment of IBM and SK
Holdings C&C to foster the growth of cognitive and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) technologies throughout the region. The two
companies plan to make a cognitive cloud platform available at the
Cloud Data Center in Pangyo, enabling local startups and IT
developers to create cognitive apps and industry-specific services
that leverage Watson.
Developers in Korea will also have access to Bluemix, IBM's
Cloud platform, and more than 150 APIs and services spanning key
areas such as cognitive, blockchain, Internet of Things and big
data.
Local universities are also participating by cultivating future
cloud talent. To prepare the next generation of cloud-based app
developers, IBM and SK Holdings C&C have been teaming with
leading universities, including Dankook University, Ewha Woman's University and Sungkyunkwan
University, providing students with education and training based on
the IBM Cloud.
"Cloud computing has rapidly become a key driver of digital
transformation throughout Korea," said Goodhyun Kim, a well-known
developer and IT columnist in Korea. "By making IBM Cloud and its
easy, fast, and robust APIs and services available on Bluemix to
local developers, I anticipate that we will rapidly see a whole new
wave of cloud-based innovation across Korea."
IBM Cloud is helping businesses of all sizes and industries
innovate and grow throughout Korea. For example:
- Amorepacific, a global leader in the
beauty industry, recently established a 'Global Smart Workplace' on
the IBM Cloud to create a flexible and efficient work environment
that integrates its headquarters, partners, and branch offices
worldwide. By moving to the cloud, Amorepacific has improved
productivity by reducing and simplifying business process and time
to market.
- Gravity, a leading South Korean video game corporation
and one of the original pioneers in Massive Multiplayer Online Role
Playing Games (MMORPG), has selected IBM Cloud as the preferred
platform for its new mobile role playing game Wonderfolic R and its
widely popular RAGNAROK Online game. Gravity turned to IBM Cloud
for its stability, security, global reach and to take advantage of
IBM's network of Cloud Data Centers throughout Asia-Pacific. By tapping into IBM's Cloud Data
Center in Hong Kong and
Taiwan, Gravity has been able to
expand its reach by providing gamers with better throughput
performance and the ability process data faster, even when lots of
users access the game at the same time.
- Coolio, a social content analysis app developer, is
using IBM Cloud to analyze and manage social media data and drive
global expansion. Working with IBM, Coolio has built "Sprd", a
content-recommendation app that identifies and extracts information
from social data that has the highest possibility of dissemination.
The app then shares this data with people that have similar
interests. By adopting IBM Cloud, Coolio has been able to manage
sharp increases of traffic very quickly, without any downtime or
access delay, while providing users with stable service.
- UpRoot, a data security start-up that provides real-time
detection and analysis of malicious link sources and their routes
of passage over websites across the world, has been able to take on
complicated and repetitive analysis with speed and security by
adopting the IBM Cloud. Additionally, by tapping into IBM's global
network of Cloud Data Centers, the company has been able to achieve
fast analysis of websites worldwide and share data from the process
seamlessly.
For more information on IBM Cloud, visit www.ibm.com/cloud.
i IDC, Worldwide Premium Black Book, Version 1, 2015,
July 1, 2015.
Media Contact:
Faye Abloeser
IBM Media Relations
abloeser@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM