IBM Boosts Microsoft Azure Skills With Neudesic Acquisition

Neudesic adds more Azure cloud, data engineering and data analytics capabilities to Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM.

IBM has acquired Microsoft Azure partner Neudesic to expand the tech vendor’s portfolio of hybrid multi-cloud and artificial intelligence services.

Neudesic adds more Azure cloud, data engineering and data analytics capabilities to Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, according to an IBM statement Tuesday. The company has more than 1,500 cloud and data workers in the U.S. and India.

Financial details were not disclosed. IBM and Neudesic signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the statement. CRN has reached out to IBM and Neudesic for comment.

[RELATED: IBM Acquires Telco Solution Provider Sentaca To Up Its Hybrid Cloud Game]

The statement includes a quote from Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, calling IBM a “trusted partner” and praising IBM’s acquisition to quickly build its Azure skills.

“Customers are driving incredible acceleration across Microsoft cloud services, and it‘s more important than ever to have trusted partners, like IBM, skilled in our technology,” Althoff said. “Neudesic and Microsoft are enabling enterprises to achieve their business outcomes with our Azure platform, leveraging a combination of services and IP. With this acquisition, IBM Consulting is gaining even more capabilities and assets to help customers succeed on their digital transformation journeys.“

Based in Irvine, Calif., Neudesic provides cloud services mainly to customers in health, life sciences, financial services, energy, utilities, professional services and retail. Neudesic also has partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Databricks, Snowflake, Denodo, MuleSoft, Red Hat, Salesforce, UiPath, SAP and Oracle, according to the statement.

Before co-founding Neudesic in 2002, CEO Parsa Rohani spent about 10 years at Microsoft as an architect, according to Neudesic’s website. He worked in Microsoft’s services division and “provided extensive and in-depth technical direction to Microsoft’s most strategic partners and customers.”

Neudesic ranked No. 227 on CRN’s 2019 Solution Provider 500.

IBM has been on an acquisition spree to build its cloud-related capabilities as the tech vendor attempts to build a reputation as a hybrid cloud leader – a cloud vendor that plays nice with larger vendors such as Microsoft, AWS and Google.

This marks more than 20 acquisitions – 12 in the IBM Consulting division – since Arvind Krishna became CEO, according to the statement. Previous acquisitions include Sentaca, SXiQ, BoxBoat, Nordcloud and Taos.

In October, IBM announced plans to buy the Adobe Workfront consulting unit and assets of Rego Consulting to boost the customer and experience transformation group.