IBM announced plans to invest US$17m in a new data center in Bogota. The facility will provide Colombian companies with cloud computing and big data services, the company said.

The announcement builds on the $8m investment IBM made in Colombia when IBM opened its first data center there in 2011. The company is going after local clients in banking, healthcare, food, insurance and oil-and-gas industries.

IBM cited Colombian consulting firm Vision Growth Consulting, saying, “Colombia is one of the fastest growing countries outsourcing data center services in Latin America, with an estimated 15.3% growth of the data center services market in Colombia in 2013, mainly driven by cloud computing, among others, which is already a reality in the country.”

Francisco Thiermann, general manager of IBM Colombia, said, “In the current competitive environment, Colombia companies are looking for high value solutions that help them solve complexity through innovation and business insight by addressing organic growth and productivity issues. Our new data center and our professionals aim to contribute to the private and public companies' development and the country's progress.”

IBM has made a number of multi-million-dollar investments in Latin America since 2009, opening nine IT service centers in Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. The company has more than 70 service delivery centers globally and more than 400 data centers in 170 countries.