IBM has partnered with a Lithuanian company to build a data center near Vilnius, the country's capital.

AmberCore DC, the Lithuanian firm, and IBM said one of the goals of the project was to highlight advantages of the country as a data center location. The companies said Lithuania was a viable option for clients wishing to house data in a geographically and politically safe environment when looking to set up managed services and colocation presence or disaster recovery operations.

IBM will design the facility to Uptime Institute's Tier III infrastructure requirements. In the first phase, slated to come online in the second quarter of 2015, the partners plan to make 600 racks available, providing 5kW each.

IBM and AmberCore will co-market the facility. Global marketing activities will start at the IBM PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas in February.

“In addition to the marketing activities, we are also starting discussions with potential clients,” Kirill Lupandin, CEO of AmberCore, said.