IBM, always looking for more business in China, is stepping up its investment there with a bet that “big data: powered by Linux will be a revenue producer. And whom better to work with on Linux than Red Hat?

Big Blue (NYSE: IBM) announced the opening of its open source-focused center in Beijing on Tuesday.

The purpose is to work with Chinese clients to develop solutions for “big data” and “cloud computing” based on Linux. And IBM’s top executive, Gina Rometty, has put considerable pressure on IBM internally by setting a goal of $20 billion a year in big data/analytics related revenue by 2015.

IBM engineers in China will focus on bringing Linux solutions to its Power Systems brand servers, according to Bloomberg.

The server business is also under close scrutiny at IBM after a poor first quarter sales report. Rumors have circled for weeks that IBM is in talks with other companies, including Lenovo which is based in China and operates its executive headquarters in Morrisville, about possibly selling all or part of the business.

Colin Parris, general manager of the Power Systems group, told Bloomberg that IBM would “collaborate,” as Bloomberg described it, with Raleigh-based Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) and Attachmate Group, the developer of SUSE Linux. The two companies are big rivals in the Linux space.

Parris wouldn’t detail the size of investment IBM is making in Beijing other than to describe it as “sizable.”

“China is an environment in which you have some of the largest challenges,” Parris explained to Bloomberg. “If you solve those adequately in China, what you have is a capability to deliver that solution around the world.”

IBM has an extensive and growing presence across China. 

“IBM re-established its business relations with China in 1979, shortly after the country announced its economic reform and opened its door. In the last 30 years, we have established more than 30 branch offices across China, extending IBM’s software, hardware and service businesses to more than 320 cities,” an IBM executive wrote in 2011.

“We feel privileged and proud of taking a role in building much of the business and IT infrastructure for many organizations in China.
China is integral to IBM’s business growth and expansion strategy. This country is home to a number of world-class IBM
competency and development centers. All these investments have placed IBM in a unique position to help China in its economic growth ‘miracle’.”

Want to learn more about Big Blue in China? Visit IBM’s China website online.

IBM employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina.

[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out more than a decade of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]