IBM has announced the acquisition of Pliant in a strategic move aimed at fortifying its position in the network and IT infrastructure automation business. IBM did not reveal financial details.
Pliant’s expertise lies in automating tasks related to network and IT infrastructure while abstracting these functions to the application layer. This facilitates maximum control for applications and developers, streamlining provisioning and management processes directly within applications. The enhancements brought by Pliant encompass various aspects such as infrastructure resource provisioning, traffic management, and configuration management, catering to both traditional network and IT infrastructure as well as public clouds.
As enterprise network environments grow increasingly dynamic and complex, there’s a surging demand for automation tools to optimize the value across the technology stack. With the integration of Pliant, IBM aims to empower its clients with simplified automation capabilities for their infrastructure and network. This tool is designed to securely automate, integrate, and interconnect platforms, services, and applications within diverse environments.
Established in 2017, Pliant boasts an extensive library of integrations with third-party vendors, alongside the ability to seamlessly integrate technology with APIs or command-line interfaces (CLIs). The compatibility of Pliant with other API approaches and its support for deployments in private clouds and on-premises data centers further enhance its appeal.
Pliant is offered both as client-managed software and as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product. Its design philosophy aligns with IBM’s broader vision to expand its product portfolio by leveraging low-code and no-code capabilities, thus making IT tools and skills more accessible to a wider audience of developers and engineers.
The acquisition of Pliant complements IBM’s existing software portfolio, which includes SevOne, Cloud Pak for Network Automation (CP4NA), Hybrid Cloud Mesh (HCM), IBM NS1 Connect, and Edge Application Manager.
This marks IBM’s second acquisition announcement in 2024. Since Arvind Krishna assumed the role of CEO in April 2020, IBM has executed over 40 acquisitions, primarily focusing on bolstering its capabilities in hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).
