IBM buys Pliant for network automation

Looking to bolster its network and IT infrastructure capabilities, IBM said today it has acquired IT automation vendor Pliant for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2017, Pliant is known for its IT automation and orchestration software that works to streamline communications among platforms, services and applications and simplify network and IT operations. Pliant offers a library of out-of-the-box integrations with third-party vendors and can work with technologies that have an API or command line interface (CLI).

IBM has partnered with Pliant in the past, integrating its workflow engine and other technologies in its Cloud Pak for Automation package. The idea behind that integration is to advance service delivery speed and ensure the network maintains the customer’s desired state, IBM stated.  

Pliant’s technology will let customers simplify automation with a tool that securely integrates services and applications within their network and infrastructure environments, according to Andrew Coward, IBM’s general manager of software defined networking, who wrote a blog about the acquisition.

“Pliant adds essential capabilities to automate network and IT infrastructure tasks and abstract these functions to the application layer, enabling applications (and developers) maximum control for simplified provisioning and management of infrastructure directly within applications themselves,” Coward wrote. “These optimizations include infrastructure resource provisioning and management, traffic management and configuration management for both traditional network and IT infrastructure and public clouds.”

The acquisition will extend IBM’s software portfolio, which today includes SevOne, Cloud Pak for Network Automation, Hybrid Cloud Mesh, Edge Application Manager and IBM NS1 Connect.