CSC Pushes Forward In Enterprise Cloud With ServiceMesh Acquisition

As part of its pivot toward the cloud, CSC has acquired enterprise cloud management company ServiceMesh for an undisclosed amount, the company said Wednesday.

The acquisition allows the company to continue its move toward what it calls a "next-generation IT company" by adding the ServiceMesh Agility Platform, an enterprise cloud management platform, to the CSC collection.

CSC CTO Dan Hushon told CRN that the acquisition demonstrates CSC's continued commitment to the cloud as the future of the company, instead of just another product in the portfolio.

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"We're living under a cloud-first mandate right now," Hushon told CRN. "It's so important for us to be leading with cloud, rather than [saying], 'Do you want some cloud with that?' That’s our new mantra."

The program provides a single point of control for the enterprise cloud environment and gives IT departments the flexibility to adapt applications to their custom needs. Hushon compared the application to a recipe book, with lots of options for what to cook but with the agility to adapt the recipe to make it more attuned to personal tastes.

"With this deal, CSC will now have capabilities to address two key elements that must be addressed as the cloud services market continues to grow: the ability to size, deploy, scale and manage hybrid cloud environments, and the need for enterprises to have proper cloud governance within their organizations," wrote John Madden, practice leader of IT Services at Ovum, in a report about the deal.

Hushon was adamant that CSC didn't buy ServiceMesh to just keep it away from competitors. He said CSC partners have been asking for increased cloud agility and they now can expect to be able to offer ServiceMesh as part of their offerings in "months, not years." Hushon said that he expected the product to draw in a new wave of partners, as well, who are looking to break into the enterprise cloud market.

"I think there's a massive channel play for those partners that are looking for a new way to sell into the enterprise," Hushon said. "They see it as a natural extension of delivering their value for market share."

ServiceMesh is the third in a series of CSC acquisitions since its transformation under new leadership 20 months ago. CSC acquired big data firms Infochimps in August and 42Six Solutions last October.

"CSC announced more than a year ago that it would reorganize and reinvest in strategic areas to spark additional growth, and the company has been true to its word ... This deal augments CSC's overall cloud initiatives, particularly in how it accelerates CSC's own internal IP efforts around cloud orchestration and management," Madden wrote.

Hushon could not say exactly what percent of the company's business was cloud-based, but he did say that it is the growth core of the company going forward.

"For me, it's front and center for our earnings strategy," Hushon said.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of next year.

PUBLISHED OCT. 31, 2013