IBM has opened a 30,000 sq ft Cloud Center in Airoli, Mumbai – the latest facility to be built as part of its US$1.2bn cloud center investment.

The Mumbai Cloud Center will guarantee uptime of 99.99 percent across any IT environment, including traditional IT, public, private, or hybrid cloud deployments, according to IBM.

This facility adds to IBM’s cloud center network in London, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, Toronto, Dallas and Raleigh. A new facility Paris was announced last week.

To address the growing demand for a secure and flexible cloud environment, IBM is introducing the Cloud OpenStack Services via the IBM Cloud marketplace. It aims to improve interoperability between existing IT systems and off-premise cloud workloads, providing its clients with the ability to easily deploy an OpenStack cloud.

Demand for data sovereignty
IBM said that, following reports of extensive surveillance by government agencies, it is witnessing a new form of customer demand for data sovereignty.. is the company called this trend a driving force for the acceleration of cloud adoption worldwide.

Around 100 nations and territories have adopted laws that dictate how governments and private enterprises should handle personal data. 

“Through this new center we are able to help usher businesses into the cloud era while delivering the levels of resiliency and security that allow them to experience the benefits of this new environment while ensuring they remain protected,” said Lingraju Sawkar, director of integrated technology services and global technology services at IBM India.