IBM to open four new data centres in the UK

Decision made before Brexit vote but IBM remains confident in strength of the UK economy

IBM has announced that it will open four new data centres in the UK as a result of demand from commercial and public sector customers for cloud services.

The company currently maintains two data centres in the UK, so the planned facilities represent a tripling in capacity. The first new data centre will open in Fareham in December in space leased from provider SSE. The second facility will be leased from Ark Data Centres and will be operational in the middle of next year. Two further data centre facilities will follow.

The full portfolio of IBM cloud services will be available from the new facilities.

"By adding four new cloud data centres in the UK, IBM is giving local businesses an easy route to the cloud, helping them quickly innovate and respond to market demands," said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM Cloud, in a statement.

"IBM is continuing to invest in high growth areas, offering clients higher-value cloud data services such as Watson and blockchain running on our cloud infrastructure that delivers world-class scalability, performance and security."

The decision to expand UK capacity was made before the Brexit vote, but IBM's general manger for cloud services in Europe, Sebastian Krause, said he saw few signs that the company should change its mind.

"UK customers truly understand the capabilities of cloud to drive innovation, to be more flexible on their business model, to have better insight for decision making, and to deliver better customer service," he said.

"Everyone has concluded the UK economy will continue to be very strong and there will be significant opportunities with or without Brexit."

Among the uncertainties generated by the vote are the continued availability of technological talent and also the shape of future data protection legislation. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will become law in 2018 and will have a profound effect on the way cloud services operate. It is likely that any UK replacement after the country leaves the EU will be broadly similar. In any case, IBM can afford to hedge its bets as it also has 10 data centres in Europe.

In July Dixons Carphone announced it was migrating its IT infrastructure from outsourced IBM data centres to the IBM Cloud as part of a project to integrate the two companies' IT infrastructures. Other UK IBM cloud customers include National Express, National Grid, Shop Direct, Travis Perkins and Wimbledon.