IBM has agreed to buy cloud computing consultancy Taos Mountain for an undisclosed fee as it continues on a massive strategic hybrid cloud shift.
Taos is a multi-cloud managed service provider (MSP) that has previously helped clients such as Netflix and Dell to complete migrations from on-prem to cloud infrastructure.
The firm has also established partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure to offer customers hybrid cloud managed services, and data centre migration, among other offerings.
IBM says it hopes to integrate Taos’ services into its own portfolio as it looks to expand on the hybrid cloud configurations it offers customers, and the company’s capacity to manage complex cloud integrations.
“Taos adds the deep expertise, public cloud partnerships and innovative solutions needed to drive growth and adoption of IBM's hybrid cloud platform throughout the Americas,” said IBM’s senior vice president for cloud application innovation, and COO, John Granger.
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“The platform gives enterprises the freedom to choose from multiple providers to best meet their business and IT needs, and we are committed to helping our clients successfully navigate their open hybrid cloud journeys with those providers.”
This acquisition is IBM’s ninth in a broader cloud-centric spending spree since its CEO Arvind Krishna took charge in April 2020 - and follows the purchase of Salesforce consultancy firm 7Summits just this week.
The latest move feeds into the firm’s broader repositioning as a key player in the hybrid cloud industry, and also follows plans to acquire the European cloud consultancy firm Nordcloud, announced in December.
IBM has made a conscious effort to focus predominately on cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), having formally spun-off its infrastructure business into a separate entity in October last year.
Betting big on cloud markets would make sense, given the company’s financial performance, and the broader health of a cloud industry that enjoyed great success during 2020.
Revenues in its cloud division, led by Red Hat, surged throughout last year, with 19%, 30%, and 7% year-on-year growth in each of the first three quarters of the year. By contrast, the broader business suffered a 2.6% year-on-year decline in the third quarter.
While the financial details behind the deal to purchase Taos haven’t been disclosed, the company boasts an estimated annual revenue of $220 million, according to the Owler corporate database.
