Madrid, July 12, 2023. IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today the opening of its first Multi-Zone Cloud Region (MZR) in Spain, designed to support the hybrid cloud and AI transformation journeys for Spanish and European enterprises. Comprised of three datacenters located in Alcobendas, Las Rozas and Madrid city, that will start operating today synchronously, the MZR is designed to enable European clients to deploy their mission critical workloads with high levels of resiliency, performance, security and compliance, helping enterprises meet European Union's regulatory and digital sovereignty requirements.

The opening of this MZR which represents IBM's largest investment in Spain and one of the largest in Europe, expanding IBM's presence in the Europe and demonstrates IBM's strong commitment to fostering business growth and innovation, creating hundreds of jobs throughout the region. IBM's MZR in Spain will host more than 600 clients in Europe, including Spanish companies in highly regulated industries such as CaixaBank and Rural Servicios Informáticos (RSI). Both companies use IBM Cloud For Financial Services to address the security and compliance requirements of their industry.  

"In the era of AI and hybrid cloud, companies need to be able to create solutions and services that respond to customer demands under an umbrella of frictionless innovation, with the highest security standards and adapting to a changing regulatory framework. With the opening of our Multizone Cloud Region, IBM is accelerating the digital transformation of Spanish and European companies, offering advanced hybrid cloud capabilities. Innovation is part of our DNA at IBM and we are committed to continue driving innovation in companies and positioning Spain as a leader in the digital landscape in Europe" said Horacio Morell, president of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel.

The opening of this MZR comes at a key moment in the business transformation scenario, strongly marked by technologies such as generative Artificial Intelligence and hybrid cloud that are revolutionizing the way organizations operate. Technologies that, in turn, must be implemented with a focus on resiliency, performance, security and compliance while helping enterprises meet their sustainability initiatives. 

Powered by 100% renewable energy, the Madrid MZR can help clients further advance their sustainability objectives. As we continue our commitment to help clients align sustainability goals to business objectives, IBM Cloud also allows clients to monitor their sustainability progress with tools such as the IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator, an AI-based dashboard that allows clients to track of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across various workloads and cloud services.

A cloud region to address the needs of highly regulated environments.

Building on IBM’s commitment to helping enterprises modernize securely, the MZR enhances resiliency, can allow clients to continuously run mission-critical workloads and offers access to our innovative security capabilities – especially critical for regulated sectors such as financial services, public administration and telecommunications. 

With access to IBM Cloud For Financial Services – a first-of-its-kind cloud designed by and for the financial sector, clients leveraging the Madrid MZR can accelerate cloud adoption while working to reduce risk. Supported by a growing ecosystem of more than 130 technology partners and fintechs, the industry-specific platform is designed to accelerate financial institutions’ digital transformations with a focus on trust, security, compliance and data sovereignty.   

IBM Cloud for Financial Services also includes the IBM Cloud Framework for Financial Services, a set of security and compliance control requirements built into the platform that enable financial institutions to confidently host mission-critical applications and workloads while addressing potential systemic industry risks across the supply chain. 

These controls are informed by the IBM Financial Services Cloud Council, a strong community that counts more than 140 industry experts as members from leading financial institutions across Spain and the world - whose goal is to increase the pace of innovation with cloud technologies. The network continuously collaborates on the controls to help the industry address regulatory compliance and manage data sovereignty requirements, taking into consideration the latest European regulatory requirements such as the NIS2 directive, for the security of networks and information systems in its second version, or the regulation on digital operational resilience (DORA), critical for the financial sector. 

In addition, the platform is powered by the same confidential computing security found in IBM Z. Delivered via IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services, it features ‘Keep your Own Key’ encryption capabilities backed by the highest level of security certification available in the market. 

Availability, redundancy and resiliency for total flexibility

The IBM Multizone Cloud Region in Madrid is IBM's third in Europe, after Paris and Frankfurt. Like others around the world, it follows a consistent model across all locations, with stability, reliability, performance and sustainability at its core, and designed to avoid factors such as provisioning risk. Each of these data centers - located in Alcobendas, Las Rozas and Madrid city - constitutes an availability zone, which, in coordination with the others and with autonomous operation, makes it possible to offer cloud services with greater resilience. 

IBM MZRs align to IBM's hybrid cloud strategy based on Red Hat OpenShift to help customers implement portable architectures for mission-critical applications and facilitate the training of foundational AI models on data in on-premises or cloud environments. 

The opening of this Cloud Region, along with the recent announcement of a Quantum Computing Center in the Basque Country and the "Future of Computing" initiative, in collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, shows that IBM bets on cutting-edge technologies to boost and position Spain as a driver of digital and technological transformation in Southern Europe.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.