IBM has opened its first SoftLayer cloud data center in Australia. Based in a Digital Realty site in Melbourne, the new data is part of a IBM’s $1.2 billion plan to spread its cloud round the world.

IBM has recently launched data centers in Toronto, London, and Hong Kong, to meet increased cloud demand, and support customers’ desire for data sovereignty - keeping data within their own country where it can be accessed quicker, as well as complying better with regulations and (customers hope) be safer from international surveillance efforts.

The Melbourne data center opens with space for more than 15,000 physical servers, and 10Gbps network connections with less than 40 milliseconds of latency from anywhere in the world. It will offer a choice of bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage, and networking, along with.

SoftLayer and Digital Realty are long term partners – Digital also provided the IBM group with its Toronto, London, and Hong Kong locations – each with the same format, starting with 15,000 servers.

Keeping it local

"Melbourne is our first data center location in Australia and a significant milestone for SoftLayer,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “We can now bring all the benefits and advantages of SoftLayer's cloud platform to customers in country or to customers looking for an Australian location."

Melbourne gives customers in the Asia Pacific region local backup options using Softlayer data centers in Hong Kong and Singapore. IBM SoftLayer is also offering integration with private clouds to create hybrid environments.

"Data sovereignty issues are top-of-mind for many of our customers in Australia," said one new customer, Mark Phillips, vice president at Queensland-based email messaging firm Atmail, “so the ability to now move data to this particular region is very advantageous to us.” With customers in 123 countries, he also liked the idea of SoftLayer operating elsewhere.

Other SoftLayer customers in the region include Fluccs, Rightship, Loft Group, HotelsCombined, Digital Market Square, Bugwolf, Cartesian, and Portland Software.

Softlayer is offering a US$500 discount for new orders in Melbourne.