Under the leadership of CEO Arvind Krishna, IBM Consulting, formerly known as IBM Global Services, has been steadily growing its hybrid cloud capabilities via strategic acquisitions. Of late, it has purchased well-established companies such as Australian firm SXiQ and Adobe’s Workfront consulting unit in order to add to its arsenal of expertise and technologies. The global technology giant recently announced the acquisition of another hybrid cloud company with an eye on helping communications service providers modernize, innovate, and transform their businesses.
IBM’s purchase of Sentaca, a consulting service focused on the telecommunications industry, closed on January 31, 2022, and will see the newly-acquired firm integrated into IBM’s Hybrid Cloud Services business in North America. It will operate as a separate unit under the name “Sentaca, an IBM Company,” with the company’s current executive team continuing to lead the business. The terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed.
"Sentaca's deep knowledge and experience of telecom networks, coupled with our expertise in hybrid multi-cloud and automation services and solutions, is a perfect fit to compliment IBM’s telco/5G strategy," said Phil O'Neill, CEO of Sentaca. "We are very excited to join the IBM team and to be in a position to access additional resources and platforms to deliver on even larger and more ambitious enterprise cloud transformation projects within the telco and media industry sector."
This latest purchase is IBM Consulting’s 11th acquisition and the 21st for IBM as a whole since Arvind Krishna took over as CEO in January 2020. The company has been increasing investment in its hybrid cloud and AI consulting capabilities as businesses across the world continue to seek out expert assistance in developing and executing digital transformation efforts. Its newest acquisition brings extensive expertise in helping telcos modernize around 5G networking and edge computing, with the sector expected to grow into an estimated $50 billion annual cloud professional services market by 2025, according to a survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value.
With more than 80% of the world’s largest telcos working with IBM, the market is already ripe for the high level of expertise the company provides its clients. It is likely that this will be one of several acquisitions this year as Krishna continues his efforts to boost the company’s consulting services arm.
