IBM Buys Blue Box To Bolster OpenStack Offerings

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Blue Box Group Inc., a firm that provides an OpenStack cloud Platform-as-a-Service, is being acquired by IBM to expand its hybrid cloud services, it announced today.

Blue Box Group in Seattle offers customers the chance to access OpenStack cloud operations without actually implementing OpenStack software in their enterprise data centers. Blue Box also manages workloads sent to its OpenStack data center, making it a "managed cloud" provider that injects more human supervision into managing the customer workload and making sure it runs in an optimized fashion.

IBM now offers a single management tool for OpenStack-based private clouds, whether it's public infrastructure as a service or inside the enterprise data center.

[Want to learn more about how IBM is expanding its cloud services? See IBM Bluemix Welcomes Microsoft's .Net.]

"The acquisition of Blue Box accelerates IBM’s open cloud strategy, making it easier for our clients to move to data and applications across clouds and adopt hybrid cloud environments." said IBM General Manager of Cloud Services Jim Comfort, in a statement.

The acquisition will enable IBM to deliver a public cloud-like experience within the client's own data center, relieving organizations of the burden of traditional private cloud deployments, according to the IBM statement

The purchase fits in with IBM's strategy of providing multi-pronged cloud services, with increasing emphasis on a mix of on-premises and public or hybrid cloud services. It offers IBM SoftLayer services as Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Bluemix as a Platform-as-a-Service for cloud-oriented developers, and remote, dedicated server workloads through its SoftLayer bare metal offerings.

The Blue Box acquisition is likely to be fit into IBM's expanding OpenStack Services, announced in May, that promote the idea of hybrid cloud, with workloads running on-premises supplemented by similar operations in SoftLayer infrastructure. "OpenStack is the foundation for all of its major cloud platforms - public, dedicated, private and managed services," according to the May 19 statement announcing the OpenStack Services offerings.

The Blue Box acquisition gives IBM the means to help developers building cloud-oriented applications. It will allow IBM to provide "simplified and consistent access to public, dedicated and local cloud infrastructure," according to the June 3 statement announcing the deal.

OpenStack expertise in depth also allows IBM support for managed services across public and enterprise cloud environments.