What is it?
Nearly three of every four enterprises is using hybrid cloud today,1 with 90% adoption expected by 2027.2 With an AI-enabled deluge of 1 billion new cloud-native apps expected by 2028,3 organizations are looking for ways to manage their cloud infrastructure more efficiently and securely.
Deploying modern applications at scale requires infrastructure automation to manage hybrid and multiple cloud environments effectively. IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp, a leader in infrastructure automation, bolsters the multi-cloud management capabilities of IBM's cloud and security portfolios.
Why should you care?
Today's businesses are looking to optimize for both performance and cost with the combination of clouds and environments that works best for them. Multi-cloud automation tools like HashiCorp's can help. IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp means simplified end-to-end management of hybrid and multi-cloud estates across different platforms, streamlined application deployment and management, and more secure cloud postures. For customers, these enhancements lead to faster delivery of cloud-native applications and higher ROI from cloud spending.
How will the acquisition affect IBM solutions?
The addition of HashiCorp continues IBM's trend of investing in automation across application management, full-stack observability, financial management and data integration. HashiCorp capabilities are expected to be tightly integrated throughout the IBM and RedHat portfolios of lifecycle management solutions for applications, security, and infrastructure and networking.
Differentiation in the market
HashiCorp solutions excel in simplifying the management of complex cloud estates. Its acquisition by IBM reduces complexity for customers even further, with a consolidated portfolio of best-in-class multi-cloud management tools standing out in a fragmented competitive landscape. You can leverage this consolidation to offer customers more comprehensive and future-ready solutions.
How to position and sell this solution
This solution integrates identity-based security and secrets management with your company's automation offering, creating a unified platform that balances speed, security and cost optimization — essentially functioning as a "single pane of glass" for streamlining the management of user data, infrastructure and automation capabilities.
When speaking with your customers, be sure to emphasize IBM-HashiCorp synergies in:
- Application lifecycle management for streamlined building of hybrid cloud applications while reducing risk and improving governance
- Security lifecycle management for data protection and central management of data, keys, services, identities and secret policies, with zero-trust access to systems and apps
- Infrastructure and network lifecycle management for building and managing hybrid cloud network stacks, simplifying provisioning and orchestrating workloads across platforms while improving developer productivity and delivery
For more information
The Arrow IBM team is on call to help you with your sales efforts. To learn more about optimizing multi-cloud management and application development with HashiCorp and IBM, contact us. The Arrow Solutions Lab is available for testing and customer demonstrations with Arrow's technical experts.
Arrow's value-add
Arrow's award-winning ArrowSphere platform makes it easy to order, procure and manage all of your cloud products, including IBM and HashiCorp solutions. Our technical and sales teams can equip your teams to position and sell the IBM-HashiCorp joint value proposition effectively.
Sources
1 Flexera. "2025 State of the Cloud Report." Mar 2025
2 Gartner. "Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Total $723 Billion in 2025." Nov 2024.
3 IDC. "1 Billion New Logical Applications: More Background." Apr 2024.
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