SAN FRANCISCO — In a sign that political instability and natural disasters can fuel technology spending, IBM Corp. plans to invest $300 million building new centers that can store companies’ sensitive data and deliver it remotely in the event of a meltdown.
Called “cloud computing,” the technology that Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is employing in 13 new facilities lets companies access backups of their critical computer files over secured Internet connections _ instead of housing all the data internally.