IBM has teamed up with Range Technology on a massive data center build-out in China. The companies announced on Tuesday a plan to build a 6.67m-sq-ft data center campus in the Hebei Provice, as part of an initiative to develop the area’s IT and services-based economy.

Madam Zhou Chaonan, Range Technology chairman, said the facility will offer world-class infrastructure and advanced network-based services. "This initiative plays a critical role in the economic development of China in light of the pressing demand for managed hosting in the areas of cloud computing and mobile devices."

IBM cited research by IDC, which estimated the size of the Chinese data center services market to have reached US$667.1m in 2009. The analyst firm forecasted the market to gain an additional $1.9bn over the next five years.

The facilities, expected to be completed in 2016, will support an array of applications, from outsourcing services and business continuity and disaster recovery to cloud-based storage and mobile-device management. Range Technology and IBM will work together to provide services at the facility.

One of its customers will be the Langfang City government, which will use its services to host transportation-related systems, e-government services and administration systems. The data center will also support the city-administration system, as well as food and drug safety services.

Built to IBM specifications, the design will follow international green-building standards.

Steve Sams, VP of IBM’s Site and Facilities Services division, said the company currently owns and manages more than 8m sq ft of data centers for clients and has designed and built more than 30m sq ft of data center space globally.

"This new facility will leverage IBM’s data center innovation and resources to provide a cost-effective solution while providing the flexibility to meet the unpredictable changes in IT demand – whether it is from changes in IT technology or new business models such as cloud computing," he said.