Hybrid cloud — IBM's new CEO wants a fourth platform for the company

• IBM’s has appointed a new CEO, Arvind Krishna.
  
• Krishna believes that the next battle for IBM will be to establish itself a leader in hybrid cloud.
  
• He wants IBM and Red Hat to be the “new standard” in the market.
  

Long before the Coronavirus pandemic IBM was already in the process of appointed a new CEO — Arvind Krishna. In a letter to employees, he made it clear that the hybrid cloud will be the next challenge for IBM to conquer.

“IBM has already built enduring platforms in mainframe, services, and middleware. All three continue to serve our clients. I believe now is the time to build a fourth platform in hybrid cloud,” wrote Krishna.

Krishna’s position isn’t too far for his predecessor, Ginni Tometty, who had been at the helm of IBM since 2012 and was the architect behind IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat — the biggest in the company’s history.

Krishna opines that with the company already established in areas of cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and quantum computing — the hybrid cloud should be a breeze to set up.

“The fundamentals are already in place. Our approach to hybrid cloud is the most flexible and the most cost effective for our clients in the long term. Coupled with our deep expertise, IBM has unique capabilities to help our clients realize the potential of a hybrid cloud business model,” he said.

IBM’s plan to set up hybrid cloud
Krishna lays out a three-point plan for how IBM will accomplish its dominance in hybrid cloud. It starts with IBM leveraging its sources of competitive advantage — namely, open source and security leadership.

According to him, since IBM helps clients build “mission critical” applications, trust will also have a major part to play in how the company will break through when it comes to hybrid cloud.

However, that’s easier said than done. Winning the architectural battle in cloud will be key — especially since players like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft don’t plan on making it easy and already have a head-start. New entrants like Alibaba also have their eye on the same prize.

Nonetheless, Krishna’s aspirations involve IBM and Red Hat establishing Linux, containers and Kubernetes as the new standard in the market.

Through all of it, Krishna believes that the company needs to be “obsessed with continually delighting” clients.