Interoute is taking its cloud computing solution to the Far East with the opening of a Virtual Data Center (VDC) in Hong Kong.

It means Interoute customers can now choose from seven VDC zones – Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris, Milan or Hong Kong – to gain fast access to their applications and data.

Interoute plays to its network advantage, offering one SLA for both networking and cloud computing and not charging for data transfer.

Interoute general manager for cloud computing Lee Myall said the expansion has come primarily as a result of European businesses pushing east.

He said there would be more VDCs to come, both in the Far East and elsewhere, as Interoute continues to expand.

“This expansion is about pushing compute power to the boundaries of our network, but I can foresee that computing will start dragging the network to a few places,” Myall said.

“Hong Kong is already filling up - we have customers with big migration plans who are going live at the moment.”

The VDC is built into the core of Interoute’s network and, according to the company, this means it can deliver a fully networked cloud which is faster and has greater resilience and security than other cloud computing services.

Interoute’s move comes at a time when spending on cloud services in Asia Pacific is growing at a CAGR of 30%, according to IDC, and the Asian market is providing robust growth for both local and Western multinationals.

Last week, for example, IBM announced that luxury children’s fashion retailer Club 21 will be using its cloud, e-commerce and analytics software to expand its online presence across Asia-Pacific, increasing its reach from four to 15 countries across the region.

The importance of Asian markets for multinational businesses was reinforced by recent pan-Asian large research project from Telstra Global which found that 83% of multinationals in Asia expect to either meet or exceed their financial and strategic objectives in the next three years.

Telstra Global’s Connecting Countries report found that the ICT industry in particular is a stand-out success in Asia, with 71% of ICT companies having been very successful in Asia in the past three years, compared to 61% of companies across other sectors. 

“Over the next three years both financial services and insurance companies and those in the ICT sector are most bullish about exceeding their objectives in Asia, with 55 and 51% respectively, compared to 42% across the board,” said Telstra Global managing director Martijn Blanken.