International Business Machines (IBM) is investing $1.2 billion in cloud services. The technology giant wants to increase its presence in the next generation of cloud storage. It will build 15 high-tech data centres across the world. It must change from being a largely hardware-based company to online services. Its revenues have decreased for the past six quarters. It needs to reverse this trend. An IBM spokesman told reporters: "This is fundamental because this allows us global coverage." He added: "We are continuing to invest in where we think the growth areas are going to be."

Wikipedia says cloud computing is a concept that involves a large number of computers, "connected through a real-time communication network such as the Internet". "The cloud" is a metaphor for the Internet. Marketers use concept of the cloud to sell more services. People keep their data and software on a server (a huge computer) of the company offering the cloud service. There is no need to download anything or store information on any computer. There are several problems with cloud computing, including security, reliability and issues of privacy.