IBM has expanded its global cloud network once again by launching a new hosting facility in the South Korean city of Pangyo, which is located a short drive away from Seoul. The data center is part of a collaboration between the vendor and regional technology giant SK Holdings C&C Co. that aims to address the growing local demand for computing services.

Ranked as the fourth largest economy in Asia, South Korea is home to numerous enterprises and startups that are embracing the public cloud just enthusiastically as their Western peers. This revenue opportunity has attracted not only IBM but also its rivals. Amazon set up shop in Seoul at the start of 2016 and Microsoft followed suit a few months later by opening a data center of its own nearby. The two vendors both command a better overall position in the infrastructure-as-a-service market than Big Blue, yet they can expect to face tough competition due its partnership with SK Holdings C&C.

The South Korean conglomerate dominates the local telecommunications industry and has a thriving professional services business. It plans on using Big Blue’s new data center to host a large portion of its managed application portfolio, which spans from development tools to software-as-a-service offerings. And in addition, SK Holdings C&C will also provide assistance to other local organizations that are deploying their workloads the IBM Cloud.

The vendors claim that more than 20 South Korean companies already run application in the new data center, a number that they see increasing significantly over time. The press release in which Big Blue and SK Holdings C&C originally announced their partnership back in 2015 stated that the collaboration is expected to generate revenue of over $200 million through the next five years. In preparation, IBM has designed the facility with room for “thousands” of servers.

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