Technology

IBM Partners Up With Workday to Expand the Cloud

Chris Lange

Published: August 15, 2016 9:50 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:35 am

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is looking to move further into the cloud with its newest collaboration with Workday Inc. (NYSE: WDAY). In a press release early on Monday, Big Blue announced that Workday has adopted the IBM Cloud as part of a multi-year strategic partnership. Ultimately, IBM Cloud will become the foundation for Workday’s development and testing environment with all that entails.

Going forward, Workday intends to expand the use of IBM Cloud over time beyond development and testing.

Considering that IBM Cloud will become the primary platform for Workday’s development and testing, Workday will look to continue the acceleration of its innovation for applications and services. IBM Cloud will also provide important capacity expansion in support of Workday’s growing development and testing requirements.

For some background: IBM’s global cloud data center presence includes nearly 50 highly scalable and security-rich IBM Cloud data centers in 17 countries on six continents. The company delivers enterprise cloud services ranging from analytics and Watson to Blockchain and Internet of Things to provide clients with more choice and flexibility in their digital transformation.

Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud, commented:

Leading enterprises like Workday continue to turn to IBM Cloud for its global reach, flexibility, and resiliency. Through a preferred cloud partnership with IBM, Workday can accelerate its innovation efforts to better serve clients around the world.

Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and chief executive of Workday, added:

IBM and Workday are both delivering transformative applications and services in the cloud. Workday will use IBM Cloud to continue accelerating Workday’s internal development and testing efforts to support our ongoing global expansion.

So far in 2016, IBM has outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up 21%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is up just about 8%.

Shares of IBM were trading at $162.68 early Monday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $153.90 and a 52-week trading range of $116.90 to $164.95.