Wasabi Expands Data Management Offerings for UK Customers

Rhea-AI Summary

Wasabi Technologies announced expansion of data management offerings by adding IBM Cloud's London data center to its storage regions. The expansion leverages IBM's Multizone Region (MZR) to help customers address regulatory requirements and utilize AI technologies securely.

Liverpool Football Club, using Wasabi AiR for media storage, will benefit from this expansion to manage club media content securely at scale. The collaboration between IBM and Wasabi aims to drive data innovation across hybrid cloud environments, particularly focusing on sports, media, and entertainment clients.

IBM's MZR infrastructure features three or more data center zones designed to maintain service consistency and enhanced resiliency, ensuring business continuity even if a single failure event occurs.

Positive

• Strategic partnership with Liverpool Football Club for media content management
• Expansion into IBM Cloud's London data center enhances geographic presence
• Access to IBM's Multizone Region infrastructure improves service reliability

Negative

• None.

Insights

Tech Expert

The expansion of Wasabi's data management offerings through IBM's London data center represents a strategic move in cloud infrastructure, but has minimal direct impact on IBM's stock value. While the partnership showcases IBM's growing cloud presence and AI capabilities, this specific regional expansion is too small relative to IBM's $216B market cap to move the needle significantly.

The implementation of Multizone Region (MZR) architecture demonstrates IBM's technical strength in providing enterprise-grade reliability and compliance. The partnership with Liverpool FC through Wasabi highlights practical applications in sports analytics and content management, but this represents just one use case in IBM's vast portfolio.

The collaboration primarily benefits Wasabi's growth strategy while providing IBM with incremental revenue from infrastructure services. From an investment perspective, this development reinforces IBM's existing cloud strategy rather than introducing new material business drivers.

Liverpool Football Club will leverage Wasabi AiR to securely power AI-driven content

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wasabi Technologies, the hot cloud storage company, today announced it is expanding their data management offerings for customers with the addition of IBM (NYSE: IBM) Cloud’s London data center to Wasabi’s storage regions. Wasabi’s ability to leverage IBM’s Multizone Region (MZR) addresses the need to help joint customers address their evolving regulatory requirements and leverage AI and other emerging technologies with a secured, enterprise cloud platform.

The influx of data associated with AI has the potential to fuel numerous business innovations, but it also introduces complexities where data resides and requires regulatory and global compliance considerations. Wasabi’s deployment of a new storage region in IBM’s London MZR aims to help new and existing UK customers utilizing Wasabi AiR, an intelligent media storage solution for the sports, media, and entertainment segment, address their data residency requirements. Wasabi AiR customers such as Liverpool Football Club (LFC) in the Premier League, will be able to access and leverage key sports data securely across a hybrid cloud infrastructure, and unlock the joint power of this expansion. This underscores Wasabi’s role as a trusted Official Partner and provider for LFC, reinforcing its strategic positioning within the industry.

“We are storing and processing an incredible amount of club media content, and we have partnered with Wasabi because they provide the level of hot cloud storage and AI processing needed to manage our media assets securely and at scale,” said Drew Crisp, senior vice president, digital, at Liverpool Football Club. “Our use of Wasabi AiR’s AI technology allows us to efficiently manage our massive library of media assets, quickly access relevant content segments, and streamline content creation. We want to continue providing our fans globally with the best content in the business, and our partnership with Wasabi is helping us achieve that.”

IBM and Wasabi are both committed to helping clients innovate with AI while addressing the data management and resiliency needs of their workloads. IBM Cloud MZRs are composed of three or more data center zones with each being an Availability Zone. This is designed so that a single failure event can affect only a single data center rather than all zones – the aim is to deliver consistent cloud services and greater resiliency. Clients hosting workloads on IBM Cloud MZRs in any country can run mission-critical workloads to keep business up and running.

“Wasabi’s expanded footprint with IBM’s London data region allows Wasabi to address the evolving regulatory and performance needs of our UK customers,” said Marty Falaro, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Wasabi. “By leveraging IBM’s Multizone Region infrastructure, we’re able to support AI-driven requirements with secured, high-performance storage. We’re excited to work closely with IBM to deliver scalable data solutions that empower organizations to unlock the full potential of their data.”

Last year, IBM and Wasabi began collaborating to drive data innovation across hybrid cloud environments for sports, media and entertainment clients such as the Boston Red Sox. This collaboration is designed to enable enterprises to run applications across any environment—on premises, in the cloud or at the edge—and help users to cost efficiently access and use key business data and analytics in real time.

“We’re excited to support Wasabi’s growth into the IBM Cloud London MZR,” Alan Peacock, general manager, IBM Cloud. “We've invested to help ensure partners have access to a diverse set of capabilities in the regions they operate in. Our work with Wasabi will enable their clients to benefit from the security, resiliency and performance capabilities of our cloud platform."

For more information about IBM’s collaboration with Wasabi, visit HERE.

About Wasabi Technologies

Recognized as one of the technology industry’s fastest growing companies, Wasabi is on a mission to store the world's data by making cloud storage affordable, predictable and secure. With Wasabi, visionary companies gain the freedom to use their data whenever they like without being hit with unpredictable fees or vendor lock-in. Instead, they’re free to build best-of-breed solutions with the industry’s fastest-growing ecosystem of independent cloud application partners. Customers and partners all over the world trust Wasabi to help them put their data to work so they can unlock their full potential. Visit wasabi.com to learn more.

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.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241205323162/en/

Lavinia Haane

wasabi@tytopr.com

Source: Wasabi Technologies

FAQ

What is the new partnership between Wasabi and IBM (IBM) in London?

Wasabi is expanding its data management offerings by adding IBM Cloud's London data center to its storage regions, leveraging IBM's Multizone Region for enhanced security and regulatory compliance.

How will Liverpool FC benefit from Wasabi's expansion with IBM (IBM)?

Liverpool FC will be able to securely manage and process their club media content at scale using Wasabi AiR, with improved data residency compliance through IBM's London data center.

What are the key features of IBM's (IBM) Multizone Region used by Wasabi?

IBM's Multizone Region consists of three or more data center zones, designed to limit failure events to single data centers, ensuring greater service resiliency and business continuity.