Moving in like a weather front, IBM is opening its first – or for that matter anybody’s first – cloud computing center in Africa, and a second one China. The African site is in Johannesburg, the Chinese one in Beijing.

IBM said the new centers are part of its overall investment in the world’s growth markets, to which it committed an additional $1.6 billion earlier this year.

The Beijing center is supposed to help clients test proofs of concept, as well as design and deploy cloud computing infrastructures and projects. It will provide resources such as reference studies and skills training about the cloud computing environment.

China, according to Henry Chow, chairman of IBM’s Greater China Group, wants to transform itself into a “services-led economy.”

Besides cloud computing, the new Africa Innovation Center, meant to capture growth in the sub-Sahara countries, will showcase Web 2.0 technologies, service-oriented architecture (SOA), systems management, next-generation banking systems, and environmentally friendly computing designs.

IBM expects IBM business partners, software start-ups, IT professionals and academia to use the center’s resources to develop their skills and deliver solutions to global markets using its architecture. It also expects them to use its services for product demonstrations, business consulting, and for designing, testing and piloting projects.

IBM has deployed an IBM Idea Factory for Cloud Computing for the University of Pretoria’s Computational Intelligence Research Group. Computer science students will be able to access this new service – based on Web 2.0 technologies and delivered through IBM's cloud computing environment – to create new projects and collaborate with other members of their community.

IBM has set aside $120 million over two years in sub-Saharan Africa to capitalize on local skills and expertise and to capture rapid growth in emerging market countries as they heavily invest in IT to modernize their societies and build out their fundamental business infrastructures in areas such as government services, banking and telecommunications.

IBM launched Europe’s first Cloud Computing Center in Dublin in March and is helping iTricity build one in Holland.

The new centers offer access to IBM's global network of 39 Innovation Centers and 60 R&D labs. Companies are able to tap into IBM expertise regardless of their proximity to any global center.