IBM buys telco cloud consultant and systems integrator Sentaca

• Tech giant snaps up another cloud consultancy
• Sentaca has experience in the telecoms and media sectors
• It helps companies figure out the best way to use multiple cloud platforms to their best advantage
• The move comes as more and more telcos are shifting applications and functions to run on cloud platforms

IBM has acquired Sentaca, a Boston, Massachusetts-based consulting firm that specializes in helping telcos and media companies to migrate their applications and services onto cloud platforms, for an undisclosed sum. 

IBM says the move will help it to “solve clients' strategic and technology challenges such as cost-of-ownership, monetization, scalable and secure architecture, and address opportunities including 5G, IoT and streaming that can accelerate the creation and delivery of new services.” 

The tech and cloud giant added: “Sentaca's domain expertise, assets and client relationships will help IBM meet industry demand and strengthen its position as a prime systems integrator for the emerging network and 5G market.” 

Phil O'Neill, CEO of Sentaca, noted (between swigs of bubbly): "Sentaca's deep knowledge and experience of telecom networks, coupled with our expertise in hybrid multi-cloud and automation services and solutions, is a perfect fit to compliment IBMs telco/5G strategy." 

Sentaca will become part of the IBM Consulting’s Hybrid Cloud Services business.

IBM wants to be a key partner to the telco community and become the professional services and systems integration specialist of choice as operators migrate an increasing number of IT and network functions to multiple cloud platforms, something they are doing at an increasing pace: Having a team that can help operators make that move and understand the challenges and opportunities that come with each cloud platform and how the migration and operation of various applications and functions differs will be attractive to operators. 

And to put itself in that prime position, and endeavour to place its Red Hat subsidiary (and in particular Red Hat’s OpenShift containerization software modules) at the heart of such telco transformation moves, IBM has created its Cloud for Telecoms that brings together an ecosystem of partners to help operators with their cloud-native and cloud-based efforts: The Sentaca acquisition looks to be an important extension of that whole proposition. 

Sentaca is just the latest in a series of cloud-related consultancy acquisitions made by IBM, with Nordcloud, Taos, BoxBoat and SXiQ all being snapped up in 2021 alone. For more on IBM’s latest cloud consulting M&A move, see this announcement. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV