IBM strategically shifted focus away from being a pure cloud infrastructure vendor, realizing it couldn’t compete with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Instead, it now helps IT departments manage hybrid environments by acquiring high-profile companies.
Starting with the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition in 2018, IBM continued with the Apptio acquisition and recently announced the acquisition of cloud management vendor HashiCorp for $6.4 billion.
HashiCorp provides cloud lifecycle management and security tools, growing faster than any other IBM business with revenue of $155 million last quarter. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna sees the value of HashiCorp’s hybrid cloud tools for the AI era.
HashiCorp changed the license on its Terraform tool last year, creating controversy in the open-source community. With the acquisition, it will be interesting to see if HashiCorp’s approach changes.
IBM and Red Hat have both faced open-source licensing controversies, suggesting a potential alignment between the companies in terms of software and open-source views.
HashiCorp introduced the Infrastructure Cloud this week, enhancing IBM’s hybrid cloud product catalog. Maintaining HashiCorp’s independence could be crucial for its success within IBM.
AVOA suggests that IBM should preserve HashiCorp’s neutral stance in working with multiple cloud providers to maintain its success.
Founded in 2012, HashiCorp raised almost $350 million before going public in 2021.
