IBM Eyes Iowa

Iowa recently announced that IBM will open a new technology service delivery center in Dubuque, IA. It is expected that the $100-million project will create up to 1,300 high-quality jobs.

IBM has signed a 10-year lease, with optional extension years, to occupy a historic building in downtown Dubuque. The City of Dubuque, Dubuque Initiatives and IBM plan to upgrade the facility to make it a “green” building. The renovation of the building will utilize industry-leading energy-efficient technology.

“We selected the City of Dubuque for our new delivery center based on several criteria, including the strong positive public-private partnership within the city, its competitive business model and the talent and skills that Iowa and the Midwest have to offer,” says Mike Daniels, senior vice president, IBM Global Technology Services.

The IBM announcement follows the addition of Microsoft building a large server farm in West Des Moines and Google’s $600-million data center in Council Bluffs; both centers are slated to be completed in the spring of 2009.

IBM intends to employ several hundred people in the new facility by the end of this year and up to 1,300 by the end of 2010. IBM will work with institutions of higher learning in the tri-state area of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin for recruitment and training of potential employees.

The technical service delivery center in Dubuque will primarily support IBM’s U.S. strategic outsourcing clients, providing server systems operations, security services and end-user services, including maintenance and monitoring of computer hardware and software systems. Employees will manage IBM’s world-class servers and storage systems that are critical for assuring optimal IT infrastructure performance. IBM’s global delivery network incorporates more than 80 strategic centers around the world and serves thousands of clients.