Editor’s note: Matthew Casey is an analyst at Technology Business Research. He sees multiple advantages for IBM (NYSE: IBM) in its latest acquisition – a deal for Fiberlink Communications.
HAMPTON, N.H. – IBM (NYSE: IBM) continues to run its tried-and-true acquisition play to advance key strategic initiatives.
Much like the Packers’ Power Sweep, Vince Lombardi’s go-to play that delivered repeatable results, IBM’s acquisition strategy entails a similar highly successful, repetitive methodology to delivering outcomes. Mirroring the infamous running play, IBM’s acquisition strategy incorporates a simplistic, repeatable approach of identifying niche vendors that fill specific capability gaps and integrating them with solutions to advance key corporate initiatives.
The success of this play has been demonstrated by acquisitions in the past, including Q1 Labs, Worklight and Kenexa, which helped formalize and scale IBM’s Security, MobileFirst and Smarter Workforce portfolios.
IBM ran the play once again on Nov. 13, acquiring cloud-based mobile security and management provider Fiberlink Communications. Centered on Fiberlink’s MaaS360 solutions suite, the acquisition helps fill gaps and advance key corporate initiatives including cloud, mobility and security.
The Pennsylvania-based cloud provider will be integrated with solutions within IBM’s MobileFirst portfolio, complementing past acquired solutions in the portfolio, such as Worklight, Tealeaf and Tusteer, and leveraging the recent acquisition of SoftLayer as a deployment channel.
Fiberlink will help bridge the gap between IBM’s traditionally deployed MobileFirst solutions and cloud use cases.
Underlying the solutions gaps that Fiberlink fills in mobile security and management are the delivery capabilities the acquisition enables for MobileFirst. The ongoing goal for IBM’s software business is to transition traditionally deployed solutions to be more consumable and available through cloud delivery.
While SoftLayer enables the actual delivery of these workloads, the native cloud-basis of Fiberlink’s mobile security and management offerings helps bridge the gap between IBM’s traditional MobileFirst solutions and the cloud. Complementing solutions within MobileFirst such as IBM Endpoint Manager, IBM Worklight and IBM Security AppScan, the cloud delivery capabilities of mobile device management and mobile security solutions from Fiberlink will help extend the presence of MobileFirst solutions through new cloud use cases. For example, the combination of MaaS360 with IBM’s Endpoint Manager solution enables IBM to deliver unified device management capabilities in both traditional and SaaS delivered use cases.
Providing flexible consumption models for customers will continue to be a main focal point for IBM and will be a theme that will characterize future acquisitions within IBM Software.
(C) TBR
