Ibm Completes Acquisition Of Apptio Inc.

11 August 2023

Today, IBM has successfully finalized its acquisition of Apptio Inc. after securing all necessary regulatory approvals. This acquisition empowers clients with the potential to extract added value through the dynamic fusion of Apptio and IBM.

In the modern business landscape, technology serves as a pivotal competitive advantage for enterprises. These organizations are ramping up their investments in IT, distributing workloads and applications across various public and private clouds, and engaging multiple service providers. Consequently, their expenditures are on the rise, necessitating streamlined, integrated, and automated solutions that optimize IT spending, enhance operations, and yield superior financial outcomes.

This closing chapter brings together the exceptional solutions of Apptio's FinOps offerings, which encompass ApptioOne, Cloudability, and Targetprocess, alongside IBM's automation portfolio consisting of Turbonomic, AIOps, and Instana. This fusion establishes a "virtual command center" for clients to manage, optimize, and automate decisions related to technology spending.

Cognizant of the prominence of AI and foundational models for clients and partners, IBM is poised to enhance its Watson AI and data platform with Apptio's anonymized IT spending data amounting to $450 billion. This confluence is set to unlock fresh avenues of innovation, insights, and value.

Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer at IBM, highlighted the significance of this amalgamation. He stated, "The combination of Apptio products and IBM's IT automation portfolio will give businesses a 360-degree technology management platform they can use to optimize and automate decisions across their IT landscapes." He further emphasized that this union marks a transformation of IT from a mere cost center into a genuine competitive advantage, driven by automation and AI.

Effective immediately, clients can harness the initial integration of Apptio and IBM through their Cloudability and Turbonomic offerings. This step serves as a pivotal initiative as IBM seeks to achieve significant synergy across critical growth areas, including automation, Red Hat, IBM Consulting, and the broader AI portfolio.

Cloudability equips organizations with data, insights, and recommendations necessary to comprehend and eliminate inefficiencies in cloud spending. On the other hand, Turbonomic generates trustworthy optimization decisions that can be automated, thereby unlocking authentic cloud elasticity and eliminating overprovisioning for optimal performance. Together, these products provide comprehensive coverage for the "Inform," "Optimize," and "Operate" stages of the FinOps Framework, offering clients the tools to manage cloud spend without impeding innovation or operational efficiency.

Moreover, Cloudability can absorb Turbonomic's executed and proposed actions, delivering a unified view that aids stakeholders in comprehending the impact achieved by harmonizing these two leading IT automation offerings.

Clients are already reaping the rewards of these solutions. Cloudability has demonstrated the potential to slash cloud costs by over 30%1 while efficiently allocating 100% of cloud program costs2 and significantly increasing reservation coverage to beyond 90%3. Meanwhile, Turbonomic has empowered clients to enhance cloud investments by 33% and reclaim approximately 30% of engineering time4.

The completion of the Apptio acquisition forms part of IBM's series of investments in IT Automation over the past three years, aimed at addressing the challenges faced by contemporary IT and business leaders. This journey commenced in 2020 with the launch of IBM's IT Automation portfolio, introducing AIOps offerings that leverage AI and automation to facilitate real-time self-detection, diagnosis, and response to IT anomalies. Subsequently, IBM acquired Instana in recognition of the need for real-time observability in modern applications and operations. In 2021, IBM further expanded its capabilities by acquiring Turbonomic, a specialist in optimizing application performance at minimal cost through automation. With the addition of Apptio to its arsenal, IBM stands poised to provide leaders with real-time data and actionable insights, enabling them to make informed spending decisions and realize value more swiftly during their operational transformations.

Apptio stands as a well-established, growing, and profitable leader in technology business management and FinOps, catering to over 1,500 clients and serving more than half of the Fortune 100.

IBM had earlier announced its definitive agreement to acquire Apptio from Vista Equity Partners on June 26, 2023.

Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, remarked on their journey with Apptio and its impact on IBM's capabilities. He expressed pride in the progress made, even in challenging market conditions, and looked forward to witnessing how Apptio's technology would enhance IBM's IT automation and AI capabilities in the years ahead. He extended his best wishes to the Apptio team as they embark on the next phase of growth with IBM.

 

Source:prnewswire.com