IBM today announced that it will be purchasing
cloud computing, hosting, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider SoftLayer. Terms of a deal are estimated to be around $2 billion, with SoftLayer's 2012 revenues estimated to be around $364 million. MSPs have already been commenting on this deal and I wanted to explore what this could mean for the managed service provider and cloud computing channel.
The timing couldn't be better for IBM, heading into their IBM Edge event next week in Las Vegas. MSPAlliance will be on site and will be interested in hearing about how this acquisition may impact MSPs. In case anyone had any doubts, this purchase solidifies IBM's intentions as it relates to cloud computing. IBM clearly wants to position itself in the middle of the cloud computing universe and believes SoftLayer will help by providing the underlying public and private cloud infrastructure necessary for channel partners (i.e., cloud & managed service providers). This is really where IBM wants to be.
By slowly divesting itself of the PC and server hardware business lines, IBM is stating very clearly that IT services is where it wants to be. The natural question I'm hearing from MSPs is whether IBM will continue to be a channel friendly organization. As with most channel acquisitions, the MSPs I talk to consistently express uncertainty about how newly acquired companies will change, often more concerned about their channel policies and less about the technological changes.
So far, IBM has exhibited clear and unambiguous channel policies towards the MSPs. This is a global initiative and one that shows no signs of slowing. The analysis of this deal, from a larger perspective, will focus on how IBM is intending to compete with the Amazon public cloud. If Amazon has staked out a claim of being the leader of public cloud infrastructure, IBM appears to be staking its own claim in the private cloud space. My own opinions on private cloud aside, I believe this approach of two well funded vendors splitting up the public and private cloud sectors is good for MSPs.
What will be interesting to watch is whether either IBM or Amazon gets bored with the status quo and decides to cross over into the territory of the other.
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