IBM to spend $300 million on 13 “cloud computing” backup centres in 10 countries

IBM plans to spend $300 million this year to build 13 "cloud computing" data centres where businesses can store information for quick retrieval in case their computer systems are destroyed in a disaster. Cloud computing refers to services accessed via the Web that seem to exist in a cloud over the Internet.

The 13 'business resilience' service delivery centres, as IBM calls them, will be built within existing IBM sites in 10 countries, including India, the UK, China, Italy and the US. IBM has so far rolled out the cloud-computing data recovery technology to fewer than five of its 154 existing data centres, the oldest of which was built more than 40 years ago.

Business continuity and resiliency services help ensure uninterrupted operations across all layers of the business, as well as helping businesses avoid, prepare and recover from a disruption. IBM is the world's leader in providing services that help avoid disruption and enable business continuity. Its rivals in this area include Hewlett-Packard Co and privately held SunGard.

The centres will feature so-called cloud computing infrastructure, through which customers will be able to tap various services designed ensure the continuity of their computing operations in the event of a power outage, disaster, or other contingency.

"Continuous and resilient business operations are an imperative" for IBM's customers, said Philippe Jarre, IBM's general manager for Global Business Continuity and Resiliency Services, in a statement.

The centres will host rack-mounted storage appliances, or "vaults," capable of storing multiple terabytes of data on behalf of IBM's customers. The vaults will be powered by software IBM gained through its acquisition earlier this year of Arsenal Digital Solutions. ASD's platform enables users to create a network of remotely managed data protection systems.

The technology encrypts data on computers, automatically sending it to IBM's cloud computing centre over the Internet. If a customer's computer breaks down or a data centre is destroyed, lost data can be restored via the Web in two to six hours, IBM Vice President Mike Riegel said in an interview.

Older technology known as "data mirroring" is far more expensive than cloud-computing technology and relies on two sets of data in two locations. But it also allows for systems to be restored in less than an hour, he said.