IBM is launching a second SoftLayer datacentre in the Netherlands

IBM has announced the launch of a SoftLayer datacentre in the Netherlands, its second in the country. The move comes the same week IBM reported cloud revenue increases of close to 75 per cent.

The company said the new datacentre, located in Almere just outside Amsterdam, will double SoftLayer capacity in the region and provide customers with more in-country options for data storage and geographically isolated services.

“This new facility demonstrates the demand and success IBM Cloud is having at delivering high-value services right to the doorstep of our clients,” said James Comfort, IBM general manager of cloud services.

“We’re reaching customers in a way that takes all the guess work out of moving to the cloud. They can build and scale applications, run the toughest big data workloads, have the level of security they need, all in country and connected to a truly global platform,” Comfort said.

IBM has moved to rapidly expand its cloud services in the past year. The company has opened up 13 new SoftLayer datacentres in the past 10 months alone as it looks to shift its focus onto lower-margin strategic initiatives like cloud, big data and security.

That said, despite sequential quarterly revenue declines the company recently reported is annual “as-a-service” run rate stands at $3.8bn, up $1.5bn in the last year. Cloud revenue was up over 75 per cent from last year; on a trailing 12-month basis, the company reported cloud revenue of $7.7bn, with analytics up more than 20 per cent and social more than 40 per cent.