IBM CEO Arvind Krishna’s ‘Deeply, Deeply Passionate’ Plan To Make IBM-Red Hat No. 1 In Hybrid Cloud, AI

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That transformation began more than two years ago with Krishna, who was then senior vice president of cloud and cognitive software, working feverishly to close IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat, Raleigh, N.C. That managed services infrastructure spin-off—a move expected to be completed by the end of this year—creates a $19 billion business with 4,600 clients that is currently dubbed “NewCo.” It also sets the stage for deeper hybrid cloud partnerships with the channel and a robust Red Hat OpenShift ecosystem. Now it is about all of us jumping in, activating that and taking advantage of that opportunity.” IBM—under Krishna’s leadership—has put in place the laser focus and sales alignment with the proper compensation model to drive growth in the Red Hat OpenShift hybrid cloud/AI platform, said O’Shea. It is a very customer-centric strategy, and the speed at which Arvind is executing is also very admirable.” Noida, India-based HCL, for its part, is responding with a plan to increase the number of IBM-Red Hat engineers fourfold from 1,000 to 4,000 over the next two years as it aims to dramatically scale up the IBM practice. They depend on us as a one-stop, end-to-end cloud consultant and solutions provider.” Joe Mertens, president and CEO of San Antonio-based Sirius Computer Solutions—who has built the onetime IBM-exclusive provider into a $3 billion national integrator powerhouse, the largest IBM partner in the U.S. and No.

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