IBM scores a $500M deal to build a hybrid cloud for Anthem

IBM is announcing a significant stride in its bid to be the best cloud company with a $500 million services contract today with Anthem.

Under the deal, IBM will build a hybrid cloud environment for Anthem, transforming that company’s information technology infrastructure. IBM recently formed its IBM Cloud business unit, bringing together a team of services, software, development, and research initiatives to further fuel IBM’s momentum in this market and accelerate new innovations into the marketplace.

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Cloud computing has transformed IT infrastructure, and many companies are using a hybrid of internal computing resources in their own data centers, as well as outsourced computing resources in a “cloud” or web-connected data center owned by somebody else.

IBM had previously set a goal of generating $7 billion in cloud revenues by the end of 2015. But it actually hit that target a year early, with revenue growth of 60 percent in the past year. The cloud-as-a-service portion of that revenue in 2014 was $3 billion, up 75 percent.

Gartner forecasts that in 2015, 72 percent of enterprises will pursue a hybrid cloud strategy. Analysts at MarketsandMarkets estimate that hybrid cloud will be a nearly $80 billion opportunity by 2018, and IBM said it is well positioned for that.

Last year, IBM invested more than $1.2 billion to expand its global footprint in 40 cloud data centers around the world. It also invested $1 billion to build its Bluemix platform-as-a-service to help developers create cloud applications for the hybrid cloud. And it signed more than $4 billion in multi-year enterprise cloud agreements with Lufthansa, WPP, Thomson Reuters, and ABN Amro. IBM now has more than 120 software-as-a-service offerings, and it supports 24 of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies.