IBM is moving rapidly on its plans to spend heavily on cloud computing . It expects to spend $1.2 billion this year on increasing the number and quality of computing centers it has worldwide.

The move reflects the speed at which the business of renting a lot of computing power via the Internet is replacing the conventional business of selling mainframe computers, computer servers, and associated hardware and software. Champions of cloud computing cite both lower costs and faster deployment as the reasons for the shift.

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“This is a key growth area for IBM,” said Erich Clementi, senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services. “We are building out a global footprint.” In addition to selling raw computing and data storage capabilities, he said, IBM plans to offer over 150 software and software development products in its cloud. Among the products is Watson, an advanced cognitive computing framework. Last week, IBM’s chief executive, Virginia Rometty, announced a new business group inside IBM for Watson.

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“This is a series of investments that started years ago,” Mr. Clementi said. “Under Gini, we’re doubling down.”

One reason for IBM’s urgency is the rapid growth of competitors, in particular Amazon Web Services, but also Google and Microsoft. All these cloud providers, which offer a service that eats into IBM’s traditional revenue, have said they will spend at least $1 billion annually on cloud computing for the foreseeable future.

Last year, IBM paid $2 billion to buy Softlayer, a cloud company with 13 data centers. IBM already had 12 data centers of its own, in the United States and overseas, for a total of 25. The smallest of these contains over 16,000 servers, and most are significantly larger. By the end of 2014, the company plans to have 40 centers in 13 countries scattered over five continents. In addition to building computing centers in mainland China and the Middle East, IBM will build two facilities in the United States specifically designed to handle government workloads.

The China and government initiatives, in particular, seem aimed at Amazon. Amazon came into China only in December, where it has to be to attract Chinese businesses. Over much of last year, IBM contested a $600 million deal between Amazon and the Central Intelligence Agency for cloud services before withdrawing its protest in October. IBM is likely to offer specialized clouds that meet health care and financial regulations at some point in the future.

As all the competitors begin to jockey for contracts from start-ups and established businesses, each is expected to bring its own relative strengths to bear. For IBM, Mr. Clementi said, this would include the ability to integrate existing computing facilities with an external cloud; stronger management and privacy controls; and a deep understanding of business processes.

“I don’t encounter Google outside of their traditional work,” he said. “They aren’t delivering the ability to deliver a mobile application that can hook into a general ledger. Sometimes I run into Amazon.” Referring to more traditional competitors, he said, “With Hewlett-Packard, I don’t see the reach or the breadth.”

H.P. has also been running a cloud business, and in November the company announced with Salesforce.com a deal to run Salesforce’s cloud-based software on H.P. machines.