Beijing Rising International Software Co will open a cloud computing security center on Monday, the largest of its kind in Asia, the Internet security firm said Thursday.

With a total investment of 130 million yuan (US$19.11 million), the center consists of 5,000 servers in various geographic locations in China. It features latest cloud computing technology, which provides users faster response to new viruses and rapid update speed.

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are used by computers and other devices on-demand, like a traditional utility.

The center will help Rising to provide users security check services for up to 1 billion users and reduce the time for processing most of the virus files to one second.

"Many new computer viruses and Trojan programs appear online every day," said Rising in an e-mail statement. "The center can help Rising reduce the time to automatically analyze and process most virus files to one second."

The center's quick response will differentiate Rising from rivals like Jiangmin, Norton 360 and Symantec, industry insiders said.

"As pressure continues to simultaneously cut costs, rationalize investments, improve productivity and boost innovation and IT capability, cloud computing is becoming an attractive alternative," Gary Matuszak, chair of IT, Communications & Entertainment Practice at KPMG, said in a recent note.

Rising also plans to launch a three-year anti-virus special service package for 31.50 yuan, a big drop from the original price of 198 yuan.