(Corrects quote in 5th paragraph to refer to "these deals" (not"big deals") and to clarify speaker was referring to cloudcomputer-class deals, not necessarily to deals which will bebillion-dollar plus in scale)
By Eric Auchard
LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - IBM is enjoying a wave ofmajor technology outsourcing deals from European customers inthe fourth quarter and the new contract signings are not overyet, an executive for the computer services giant said in aninterview.
Late on Tuesday, IBM announced the third in a string ofbillion dollar plus contracts, saying it had won a seven-year,$1.25 billion deal with WPP, the world's top advertisingfirm, to run WPP operations in the cloud.
On Monday, IBM disclosed a multibillion-dollar deal toprovide computer infrastructure services to Dutch bank ABN Amro. And last month, Lufthansa agreed a $1.25billion contract for IBM to take over the German airline'sinformation technology operations and staff.
Bart Van den Daele, IBM's general manager for strategicoutsourcing in Europe, said big contract signings slowed in thedepths of the euro crisis but that the region's customers areready to play catch-up.
"(There's) a new wave of these deals which is stillcontinuing and we see it going forward," Van den Daele said in aphone interview, referring to cloud contracts. He did notspecify, however, whether these deals would be similar in scaleto the recent billion-dollar plus awards. "Now you see the firstresults with Lufthansa, ABN Amro and WPP and there will beothers," he added.
The common theme among European customers is their growingwillingness to embrace the global corporate shift toInternet-based computing, or so-called cloud services, but whiledemanding several local twists, he said.
IBM seeks to differentiate its offering by focusing onhybrid clouds, which mix together the private, on-premisecomputer systems for which it has long been known with newerpublic-facing Internet, mobile and analytics systems, allowingclients to move existing systems to the cloud at their own pace.
This hybrid approach means companies can wait for yearsbefore they consider moving their most sensitive core financialsystems to the cloud computers. It also gives them the option ofnever having to move.
Secondly, European clients demand that their data remainstored locally in European data centre, a requirement IBM hasmet by building seven public cloud data centres across Europe inLondon, Amsterdam, Paris and one in Germany, with another tofollow there shortly.
WPP's deal will allow the London-based company to stitchtogether the operations of the more than 300 agencies it hasacquired through a relentless roll-up of the advertisingbusiness over the past decade and more.
WPP signed its contract last quarter but it only went liverecently, IBM's Van den Daele said. ABN was signed in the fourthquarter, while Lufthansa was also agreed this quarter but itwon't start up until early 2015. (Editing by Susan Thomas)
WPP (WPP)
