Verizon, through an official statement, announced the decision to sell its private cloud services and hosting business to IBM.
With the new development, it seems like Verizon’s cloud services and hosting businesses have come to an end. Verizon entered the cloud market back in 2011 when it acquired Terremark, preparing a strong foundation for its private cloud business.
Cloud market is witnessing a fierce competition between major players like Amazon, Google and Microsoft who have already reserved a place for themselves. Verizon also sold its public cloud services last year and with this recent move it appears like it was not able to set a higher scale for its cloud service and now might come up with new business strategies all-together.
George Fischer, SVP and Group President at VES (Verizon Enterprise Solutions) through the official statement, pointed towards various “strategic initiatives” that both Verizon and IBM together aim to work upon with this agreement.
He said, “It is the latest development in an ongoing IT strategy aimed at allowing us to focus on helping our customers securely and reliably connect to their cloud resources and utilize cloud-enabled applications.”
He further added, “Our goal is to become one of the world’s leading managed services providers enabled by an ecosystem of best-in-class technology solutions from Verizon and a network of other leading providers.”
IBM, on the other side, has been performing seemingly well, especially in the cloud services. Though its other legacy business is seeing a downfall, its cloud service department is faring well. Here, by purchasing private cloud and hosting business of Verizon, it further strengthens its cloud service portfolio.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of this year.
Verizon had recently closed a deal with Equinix, in which it sold 29 of its datacenter to the latter.
