Following last year’s announcement from Dell that it planned to invest over US$1 billion to build new data centres and develop sets of products in areas such as virtualisation and cloud computing, Amit Midha, Dell's president for Asia Pacific and Japan has said that the company is planning to set up more than 20 data centres in response to demand form customers.

According to reports, India is likely to be the site of the company’s first data centre in the region,  PC World reported that the pace of investment in these data canters will depend on the growth in demand, and the need for clearances in some countries including China, he said.

Dell’s move into data centres is aimed to fuel growth by expanding its businesses outside of computer hardware. As part of the Company’s on-going commitment to develop new cloud-based services, solutions and delivery options, since the beginning of 2012, Dell has opened new technology centre in Quincy, Washington, that will provide customers in North America access to cloud technologies and IT outsourcing services, whilst in Europe Dell plans to build a new data centre at its largest plant in Halle an der Saale (Saxony-Anhalt) in Germany for IT outsourcing and cloud services. It is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2012.