IBM is bolstering its position in cloud computing with the purchase of Dallas-based SoftLayer Technologies Inc. in order to create a new division focused on offering cloud services.
“As businesses add public cloud capabilities to their on-premise IT systems, they need enterprise-grade reliability, security and management,” said Erich Clementi, senior VP of global technology service at IBM. “With SoftLayer, IBM will accelerate the build-out of our public cloud infrastructure to give clients the broadest choice of cloud offerings to drive business innovation.”
In a statement issued today, IBM said the acquisition will marry SoftLayer’s public cloud services with IBM SmartCloud.
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“The compelling opportunity is connecting IBM’s geographic reach, industry expertise and IBM’s SmartCloud breath with our innovative technology,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “Together SoftLayer and IBM expand their reach to new clients – both born-on-the-cloud and born-in-the-enterprise.”
SoftLayer operates a global cloud infrastructure platform in 13 data centres in the United States, Asia and Europe. The firm claims to be the world’s largest privately held infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider with 100,000 devices under its management.
IBM did not mention how much it was buying SoftLayer for but newswire service Reuters said the deal could total more than $2 billion.
IBM said it expects to reach $7 billion in annual cloud revenues by the end of 2015.