IBM buys hybrid cloud consultancy BoxBoat Technologies

IBM has acquired BoxBoat Technologies, a Bethesda, MD-based provider of container strategy and implementation services.

Founded in 2016, BoxBoat helps public and private sector organizations use Kubernetes – a popular open-source platform for deploying and managing containers – as an enabler of cloud solutions. Containerization helps developers by abstracting applications from the environment where they run – whether it’s a private data center, public cloud, or a personal laptop. This decoupling allows applications to be deployed more easily and consistently, and allows developers to better focus on application logic and dependencies.

BoxBoat’s more than 40 professionals have worked with numerous Fortune 100s and government agencies on containerizing mission critical workloads and modernizing DevOps solutions.

IBM’s acquisition of BoxBoat will further advance the technology giant’s hybrid cloud strategy. The firm is pivoting to a focus on multi-cloud software that drives business automation – including RPA, process mining, and workflow automation – and runs on its Red Hat OpenShift hybrid cloud platform.

The company is also adding IT consultancies with relevant capabilities to its business services division. IBM earlier this year completed the purchases of cloud consultancies Nordcloud and Taos.

"Our clients require a cloud architecture that allows them to operate across a traditional IT environment, private cloud, and public clouds. That's at the heart of our hybrid cloud approach," said John Granger, SVP of hybrid cloud services at IBM. "No cloud modernization project can succeed without a containerization strategy, and BoxBoat is at the forefront of container services innovation."

An IDC report projects that 85% of organizations will be running containerized applications in production, up significantly from approximately 35% in 2019. Kubernetes, an open-source platform developed by Google, is the preferred containerization method, with 91% of organizations using it to orchestrate containers and three-quarters using it in production, according to a 2020 StackRox report.

"We founded BoxBoat on the idea that containers and DevOps would become an industry standard with the potential to transform enterprise IT with lightning fast application deployment workflows," said Tim Hohman, CEO and co-founder of BoxBoat. "Joining IBM will allow us to realize a shared vision of helping clients innovate by successfully deploying container-based applications on-premise and to the cloud."

The deal is expected to close this quarter. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.