Cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) specialist Salesforce.com will open a second data center in Japan to support growing operations across the APAC region. It promised to provide more details about the project in the beginning of 2015.

Last week during its Tokyo road show, the company also announced investments in two local businesses, and revealed the extent of its charity work in Japan.

"Our second data centre, our investments in tech companies and our foundation work will enable us to continue to build trust with our customers and partners in Japan," said Shinichi Koide, chairman and CEO of Salesforce Japan.

Big in Japan
Salesforce has announced plans for a second Japanese data center, three years after it opened its first facility in the country. However the details of the construction project will remain secret for a while.

The company is already expanding its presence in the land of the rising sun - the investment arm of Salesforce has just added two more Japanese start-ups to its roster, bringing the total to 20. Newcomers include ABEJA, a provider of image analysis and in-store marketing and display optimization technologies, and WEIC, which develops sales applications.

"We're committed to growing our ecosystem in Japan and our work with the Salesforce Foundation will continue to inspire the next generation of Japanese start-ups to grow and give back to the community," commented John Somorjai, EVP of corporate development at Salesforce Ventures.

Salesfroce Foundation Japan has signed up a total of 500 non-profit customers, giving them the ability to use its products for free or at a heavily discounted rate. The company says the programme has helped employees in Japan volunteer more than 10,000 hours in 2014.

But rapid expansion of the company is not limited to Asia - Salesforce opened its first European data center in the UK in October, to be followed by facilities in France and Germany in 2015. Salesforce promised to power all three using nothing but renewable energy sources.

And in the middle of October, Saleforce launched an analytics platform for mobile devices codenamed ‘Wave’ – designed to enables sales staff to create advanced data visualizations with a minimum of data wrangling expertise.