IBM buys network and IT infrastructure automation company

Broadening its range of recent acquisitions, IBM has bought Pliant, a provider of network and IT infrastructure automation products. In its solutions, Pliant offers resources to automate tasks and abstract functions at the application layer, giving more control over processes for provisioning and managing infrastructure resources, network traffic and configuration, and traditional and public cloud IT infrastructure.

With the acquisition of Pliant, IBM intends to give customers the ability to significantly simplify the automation of infrastructures and networks with a tool that automates, integrates and connects platforms, services and applications securely.

Founded in 2017, Pliant exploits APIs to boost automation and integration through the use of low-code building blocks. With a library of ready-to-use integrations, it offers a centralised platform that ensures systems can interact efficiently. According to Pliant, its solutions are complementary to other API approaches and are compatible with deployments in private clouds and on-premise datacenters.

For IBM, Pliant’s design approach to automation, presented as customer-managed software and a SaaS (Software as a Service) product, aligns with its vision of building and expanding a product portfolio that uses features with little or no programming to make IT tools and capabilities accessible to a wider range of developers and software engineers.

Pliant is yet another example of how IBM is seeking to combine R&D actions and strategic acquisitions to secure the data, Artificial Intelligence and automation solutions that companies need to manage increasingly complex network infrastructures. The acquisition will expand the current software portfolio – SevOne, Cloud Pak for Network Automation (CP4NA), Hybrid Cloud Mesh (HCM), IBM NS1 Connect and Edge Application Manager – to offer customers solutions for observability, connectivity, control and automation of network infrastructures in hybrid cloud environments.

Recent acquisitions

Since April 2020, the date that marked the arrival of Arvind Krishna as the new CEO, IBM has acquired more than 40 companies to strengthen tools for managing hybrid clouds and Artificial Intelligence.

Prior to the acquisition of Pliant, IBM had already acquired application modernisation resources from Advanced in 2024 with the aim of, through a combination of new talent, tools and knowledge, supporting clients’ mainframe application modernisation journeys, marking an important step in IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI strategy. In IBM’s view, a hybrid cloud approach that includes and integrates mainframes can generate up to five times the value of a public cloud platform alone. However, modernising mainframe code and data can be a complex process. You need the right tools and partners to accelerate the transition, protect investments and reduce risks.

In December 2023, IBM acquired the StreamSets and webMethods platforms from Software AG for €2.1 billion in cash. StreamSets will add data ingestion capabilities to watsonx, IBM’s data and AI platform, while webMethods will provide customers and partners with more integration and API management tools for hybrid multi-cloud environments.

IDC predicts that the worldwide integration software market will exceed US$18.0 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.1 per cent.

Other acquisitions include:

• Manta Software: In October 2023, to complement the capabilities of watsonx.ai, watsonx.data and watsonx.governance solutions and help customers deliver products based on principles of trust and transparency. Founded in 2016 in Prague (Czech Republic), Manta gives companies visibility into data environments, with a comprehensive map of flows, sources, transformations and dependencies. Data lineage capabilities will help increase transparency within Watsonx to determine whether the right data has been used in AI models and systems.

• Apptio: In June 2023, to accelerate the advance of IT automation capabilities and, together with the Watsonx AI platform, help customers manage and optimise corporate IT spending.

• NS1: In February 2023, to integrate SaaS network automation solutions and provide content, services and applications to help optimise performance, reliability, security and costs.