IBM snaps up Finnish cloud firm Nordcloud as battle with AWS, Microsoft and Google heats up
IBM’s logo seen displayed on a smartphone.
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LONDON – IBM announced Monday that it has acquired Finnish cloud consulting services provider Nordcloud for an undisclosed sum as it looks to gain an advantage in the increasingly fierce cloud wars.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Nordcloud has a current turnover of around 50 million euros ($61 million) and over 450 employees, according to its LinkedIn page.
Cloud computing refers to when companies and individuals use someone else’s computer servers to perform a task on their machine, or store some data in a place that isn’t their hard drive. Hybrid cloud is the term used to define a combination of cloud environments including public, private and on-premise.
IBM said the acquisition will “turbocharge” its hybrid cloud consulting ability.
John Granger, senior vice president and chief operating officer at IBM Global Business Services, said in a statement: “IBM’s acquisition of Nordcloud adds the kind of deep expertise that will drive our clients’ digital transformations as well as support the further adoption of IBM’s hybrid cloud platform.”
He added: “Nordcloud’s cloud-native tools, methodologies and talent send a strong signal that IBM is committed to deliver our clients’ successful journey to cloud.”
The cloud market has boomed over the last few years and analysts at Gartner and IDC think professional cloud services will be a $200 billion market by 2024.
However, IBM faces stiff competition from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google. It has been trying to rebrand itself as a hip cloud stock recently, and last year it acquired open source software provider Red Hat for $34 billion.
“IBM’s hybrid cloud approach is very complementary with our cloud-native approach to helping clients migrate, manage and modernize in the cloud,” said Fernando Herrera, Chairman and Founder of Nordcloud, in a statement.
“As an experienced partner in today’s cloud ecosystems, we work with all of the public cloud providers for the good of our clients throughout Europe. I am very excited to embrace IBM’s open innovation mindset and help grow its global footprint.”
