TORONTO, ON -- (Marketwired) -- 08/12/14

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of a new SoftLayer data center in Toronto to meet the growing demand for hybrid cloud solutions that encompass open integration, data control and unique industry expertise. The data center follows recent launches in London and Hong Kong, and is part of IBM Cloud's broader $1.2 billion investment aimed at extending its cloud services capabilities in Canada and throughout the world.

The facility is the first SoftLayer data center in Canada, giving customers a cloud services provider with a local presence that can deliver bare metal and virtual servers, storage, and networking, all in one integrated platform. Basing these services in a local facility meets the needs of Canadian customers that require in-country data residency, such as financial institutions, public sector organizations, and many large enterprises.

The Toronto data center offers the full portfolio of SoftLayer's cloud services. It has capacity for more than 15,000 physical servers and is built exactly like other SoftLayer facilities, which are based on a POD (Performance Optimized Data Center) concept. The facility connects directly into SoftLayer's global network via a network Point of Presence (PoP) located in Toronto.

"Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America, and a vital financial and technological hub -- not only for the province of Ontario but for all of Canada," said Lance Crosby, SoftLayer's CEO. "We have hundreds of existing Canadian customers that can now have SoftLayer services deployed closer to home, and thousands of customers that will take advantage of the facility to get closer to end users in this market."

The company's large Canadian customer base includes financial services, insurance, retail and public sector organizations as well as numerous Canadian startup companies, members of the SoftLayer Catalyst startup program. Catalyst provides promising startups with credits for any SoftLayer cloud infrastructure (including servers, storage, and networking), executive mentoring, as well as engineering resources.

Currently enrolled Canadian startups include Mnubo, Epilogger, Brika, Greenoffon, Zilyo, TeachIt, maegan and kiwiwearables. Catalyst also has established relationships with leading Canadian accelerators and incubators including GrowLab, Communitech, Ryerson University Digital Media Zone (DMZ), JOLT, FounderFuel, Extreme Startups and TheNext36 as well as those affiliated with the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE).

"We are very excited to see SoftLayer open a data center in Toronto, as we are now expanding our customer base in Canada," said Brenda Crainic, CTO and co-founder of maegan. "We're looking forward to host all our data in Canada, in addition to SoftLayer's easy-to-use services and great customer service."

SoftLayer begins taking orders and delivering services in the Toronto data center today. New orders for services in the facility are eligible for $500.00 USD off the first month, for a limited time only. Visit www.softlayer.com/Toronto for more information.

About IBM Cloud Computing
IBM is the global leader in cloud with an unmatched portfolio of open cloud solutions to enable clients for the hybrid cloud era with integration, control over data and expertise. IBM Cloud has helped more than 30,000 clients around the world. Today, IBM has 100+ cloud SaaS solutions, thousands of experts with deep industry knowledge helping clients transform and a growing global network of data centers. Since 2007, IBM has invested more than $7 billion in 17 acquisitions to accelerate its cloud initiatives. IBM holds 1,560 cloud patents focused on driving innovation. In fact, IBM for the 21st consecutive year topped the annual list of US patent leaders. IBM processes more the 5.5M client transactions daily through IBM's public cloud. For more information about cloud offerings from IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com/cloud. Follow us on Twitter at @IBMcloud and on our blog at www.thoughtsoncloud.com. Join the conversation #ibmcloud.

About SoftLayer, an IBM Company
SoftLayer, an IBM Company, operates a global cloud infrastructure platform built for Internet scale. With 100,000 devices under management, 16 data centers in the United States, Asia and Europe and a global footprint of network points of presence, SoftLayer provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service to leading-edge customers ranging from Web startups to global enterprises. SoftLayer's modular architecture provides unparalleled performance and control, with a full-featured API and sophisticated automation controlling a flexible unified platform that seamlessly spans physical and virtual devices, and a worldwide network for secure, low-latency communications. For more information, please visit softlayer.com.

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Andre Fuochi
SoftLayer, an IBM Company
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