IBM Corp. today disclosed that it’s buying Nordcloud Ltd., a Finland-based professional services provider that assists enterprises with their cloud projects.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. If everything goes according to plan, the transaction will wrap up in the first quarter of 2021. 

Nordcloud, founded in 2011, has annual revenues of more than 50 million euros or $61 million, according to information posted to its LinkedIn page. The firm helps organizations manage their public cloud environments, monitor workloads for issues and optimize infrastructure use. Moreover, Nordcloud offers training services that allow its enterprise customers’ internal information technology teams to familiarize themselves with the major public cloud platforms.

IBM will also gain software engineering know-how through the deal. Nordcloud, on top of assisting companies with cloud management task, also provides application development services and helps customers move existing workloads to the cloud. The company is certified to take on projects across all three major infrastructure-as-a-service platforms. 

“Our clients are increasingly taking a more holistic approach to application modernization that allows them to operate across a traditional IT environment, private cloud and public clouds,” said John Granger, chief operating officer of IBM’s Global Business Services division. “Nordcloud’s cloud-native tools, methodologies and talent send a strong signal that IBM is committed to deliver our clients’ successful journey to cloud.”

The acquisition will advance IBM’s ongoing push to refocus its core business on the hybrid cloud market. As part of the undertaking, the company this year announced plans to spin off its $19 billion managed infrastructure services business, which mainly operates in lower-margin segments such as remote network administration. IBM earlier spent $34 billion to acquire Red Hat, whose OpenShift Kubernetes platform and RHEL distribution of Linux are widely used in enterprise hybrid cloud environments.

Large software deals often have a professional services component because companies may need assistance with implementing the technologies they’re buying. Nordcloud’s expertise in cloud projects, and the fact that it has certifications covering all three major infrastructure-as-a-service platforms, means it could become an important part of IBM’s efforts to widen the adoption of its hybrid cloud products.

The acquisition comes about a month after IBM announced the purchase of Instana Inc., whose software makes it easier to detect malfunctioning applications. Instana had raised more than $50 million from investors prior to the deal.

Image: IBM