IBM acquired telecom consultancy Sentaca for an undisclosed sum, explaining the US-based company brings mobile network expertise which will boost its hybrid cloud business.

Sentaca is the fifth cloud consulting company IBM purchased within the last 13 months, adding to Nordcloud; Taos; BoxBoat Technologies; and SXiQ, the company stated.

The consultancy will become part of IBM Consulting’s Hybrid Cloud Services unit, which it explained is a platform enterprises can use across public cloud, edge and on-premises.

IBM Consulting VP and senior partner Steve Goetz told Mobile World Live Sentaca’s expertise boosts its system integration credentials, bringing advanced network testing services.

Goetz added Sentaca brings the network domain expertise needed to employ AI for 5G service assurance and fault management. The company’s staff will join IBM, a factor the executive said was a key motivation for the takeover.

Revenue from IBM’s hybrid cloud unit during 2021 grew 20 per cent year-on-year to $20.2 billion.

Goetz said IBM is “a hybrid cloud AI company”, with its consulting unit housing thousands of engineers certified to work with leading public cloud infrastructure.