IBM Continues Cloud Acquisition Spree With Purchase Of Clearleap
IBM is continuing its cloud acquisition spree, revealing Tuesday that it has purchased cloud-based video service provider Clearleap -- marking the sixth planned cloud-based company acquisition by Big Blue in the past six months.
Duluth, Ga.-based Clearleap owns a video platform optimized for massive scalability used by leading media and entertainment companies -- including HBO, Verizon and the NFL -- that will be integrated into the IBM Cloud platform. The combined technologies will provide enterprises with a fast, easy way to manage, monetize and grow user video experiences, and deliver them securely over mobile devices and the Web, according to IBM.
Financial details of the purchase were not disclosed.
Chris Pyle, president and CEO of Champion Solutions Group, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based solution provider and IBM partner, said there is an influx of demand in the market of customers seeking cloud-based video services.
"We're seeing more and more customers want to develop a sort of private or company YouTube, so these cloud-based media services will enable that," said Pyle. "We're seeing it being well-received, especially within corporate communications and corporate training, where companies can do training utilizing videos as the media and keep it in a secure environment."
The combination of Clearleap with IBM's analytics and hybrid cloud capabilities will deliver new video solutions that will fundamentally change communications across every industry, said Steven Canepa, general manager of IBM's Global Media & Entertainment Industry division, in a release.
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM has been on a cloud-based acquisition tear of late, snatching up companies for its cloud initiative.
In November, IBM revealed plans to purchase cloud-based software developer Gravitant Inc., whose platform CloudMatrix allows companies to adopt a multi-sourced cloud operating model by making it simpler to create, manage and order a multi-cloud IT environment from a single console. Also in November, the company bought Cleversafe, a developer of object-based storage software and applications.
In October, IBM unveiled its plans to acquire The Weather Co.'s B2B , mobile and cloud-based Web properties. The purchase would bring together IBM’s cognitive and analytics platform and The Weather Co.'s cloud data platform, which handles 26 billion inquiries to its cloud-based services each day, according to a release.
IBM also said recently that it plans to buy Compose Inc., which provides database as a service offerings targeting the Web and mobile app developers. IBM said the acquisition was made in order to accelerate innovation around open source and cloud data services.
In September, the company announced its intention to acquire services specialist Meteorix, a provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and HR. Finally, Big Blue earlier this year acquired Merge Healthcare, a global medical imaging pioneer based in Chicago, as part of a move to apply machine learning to diagnose diseases through its Watson Health Cloud.
"It's good that they are broadening their portfolio and the breadth of their offerings -- that's really important," said Pyle. "A key for them is how to integrate it all together and bring everything together."
In regard to Clearleap, IBM says it will leverage its open API framework to enable companies to easily build video into applications and to adapt to specific business needs such as custom workflows and advanced analytics, according to a release. The framework also enables access to key third-party applications that customers may already have in their environments.
Tom Hughes, director of alliances for the Technology Solutions Group at Ciber, a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based solution provider and IBM partner, said the Clearleap solutions fit well alongside Aspera.
In 2014, IBM acquired Aspera Inc., which develops a technology to speed large data transfers over broadband networks.
"This is great news, particularly for our clients who are in the media and entertainment industry, and for solution providers such as Ciber because of the open API framework in being able to deliver solutions to the market," said Hughes, in an email.
IBM said the Cleversafe and Aspera technologies will be leveraged for use with Clearleap to help clients more quickly store, index and retrieve video content through the cloud.
PUBLISHED DEC. 8, 2015