IBM has launched a cloud data center in South Korea, in collaboration with local IT service vendor SK Holdings C&C. The new facility is located in the city of Pangyo, on the outskirts of the country’s capital of Seoul.

Housed within a ten-story facility built to survive earthquakes, IBM’s latest data center is intended to support adoption of public and hybrid cloud services in the region. According to company officials, the aim is to offer services that comply with domestic regulations, allowing the alliance to attract clients form the financial institutions and government agencies.

Local supplier

“A key part of our cloud strategy is to collaborate with local companies who understand the local market,” said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM Cloud, in a statement. “That’s why we chose to partner with SK Holdings C&C in Korea. Together, we are able to bring the local expertise, platform, and data services that gives Korean customers the ability to compete on a global scale.”

“Business are shifting from traditional IT systems to new models such as cloud, big data, IoT and mobility,” said Lee Ki-yeol, the digital and finance business group EVP of SK Holdings C&C. “We can be the best partner for them because we understand the B2B sector.”

The battle to establish cloud platforms in South Korea is intensifying. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to deliver cloud services from two new data center regions in the country, including one that will be located in Seoul. In January, Amazon Web Services (AWS) opened its first data center cluster in South Korea, as part of a move by the company to develop more data centers around the world.

Separately, a recent IDC study has identified Singapore and Korea as having the fastest data centers in the Asia Pacific region.