IBM is investing over US$1.2bn to expand its cloud storage business and plans to add 15 data centers to its portfolio globally throughout the year to help meet requirements for regulation and data sovereignty.

The investment will bring IBM’s data center count up to 40 across 13 countries - it currently has 13 global data centers acquired through its purchase of cloud provider SoftLayer and 12 from IBM's own portfolio.

The tech giant said it also plans to expand its data center footprint in the Middle East and Africa in 2015.

The exact locations of the new data facilities have not been confirmed but IBM did say it will be launching cloud centers in London, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Toronto, Japan, India, China, Canada, Mexico and Dallas.

IBM SVP of global technology services Erich Clementi said this spread will ensure it has a footprint in all major geogrpahies and financial centers.

"IBM is continuing to invest in high growth areas," Clementi said.

He said this investment builds on last year's IBM purchase of cloud services company SoftLayer, which it acquired for $2bn to gain access to its own cloud portfolio and 2,400 new cloud clients.

SoftLayer now underpins the growing cloud portfolio run by IBM, it said.

This new data center investment will double its SoftLayer subsidiary's storage capacity.

"The SoftLayer infrastructure will provide a scalable, secure base for the global delivery of cloud services spanning IBM's extensive middleware and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. SoftLayer's flexibility and global network will also facilitate faster development, deployment and delivery of mobile, analytic, social solutions as clients adopt cloud as a delivery platform for IT operations and manage their business," IBM said.

Just yesterday, IBM said it is using SoftLayer facilities to pitch the gaming industry. You can read more about this here.