Everything you need to know about Kyndryl

Created as a spin-off from IBM’s IT infrastructure services, Kyndryl (meaning ‘kyn’ kinship and ‘dryl, referring to tendril) is the result of a separation of BM Global Technology Services from the company’s primary operations.

Focusing on building or updating IT infrastructures, Kyndryl specializes in cloud, digital working spaces, and network infrastructures, including the edge and associated applications for data, AI, and security.

Kyndryl's company history

Kyndryl was created as a reaction to the falling revenue IBM was seeing in its IT infrastructure business. Reported revenues were in decline from $21 billion in 2018 to $17 billion in 2023, but more recently, as Kyndryl continues to develop new services and products for the IT infrastructure space, revenues are expected to grow. Currently, Kyndryl customers include 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.

It's estimated that the company could tap into what is expected to be a $415 billion market that includes more advanced cloud technologies, digital security, and AI-based automation.

Kyndryl is also forging more partnerships to deliver its portfolio of products and services to customers. In 2021, IBM named Microsoft as its first partner to provide cloud infrastructure services, and later that year, a similar deal was struck with Google. And to round out the current leaders in cloud deployment, Kyndryl also has Amazon Web Services as a partner.

What does Kyndryl sell?

The company is currently structured into several managed service providers. Kyndryl approaches each technology separately, including data and AI, application development, enterprise operations with zCloud, digital workplaces, mainframe as a service, and cyber security.

In 2022, Kyndryl launched two new products as branded services – Bridge and Vital. Kyndryl Bridge, as its name suggests, connects together siloed data sources and isolated applications.

Antoine Shagoury, Kyndryl’s chief technology officer, explained at the launch: “It provides greater access and control over critical tools, and Kyndryl experts in cloud, data and AI, security and resiliency, mainframe modernization, and other important aspects of the IT estate. Then, we use our engineering expertise and AI to analyze the results in real-time to provide operations personnel the intelligence they need to keep systems running at peak performance.”

“As customers accelerate their digital transformation, Kyndryl’s new digital integration platform can help provide rich data insights, solutions automation, and services delivery expertise,” said Nick Holden, vice president, Cisco Global Strategic Partners and Co-sell. “Kyndryl Bridge is a big step forward to enable Kyndryl and Cisco to deliver business outcomes that our joint customers are demanding.”

Kyndryl Vital is, in essence, a consultancy service that connects businesses to existing Kyndryl services or helps them create the infrastructure or applications they need to innovate. 

“Kyndryl Vital is part of a continuum that extends through Kyndryl Bridge, a new open integration platform which gives business leaders real-time insights into their complex IT estates and unprecedented control over customizing their mission-critical operations,” Kyndryl explained at the launch of this service.

Kyndryl's mergers and acquisitions

Since the creation of Kyndryl, IBM has favoured the development of new products and services over any direct mergers or acquisitions. The company’s strategic partnerships with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft deliver to Kyndryl the expertise it needs to service its customers and the diverse IT infrastructure required to support its ambitions.

However, IBM’s own acquisitions speak volumes about which areas of technology they see as expanding, and that Kyndryl would be ideally positioned to exploit. Data companies have formed a large part of their purchases, including Databand.ai, Blue Solutions Group, Nordcloud and Sentaca.

Kyndryl's key people

As Kyndryl is a spin-off from IBM, the staff that worked on these projects moved over to the new company. All the critical points of contact for their customers have remained the same.

When the new company was established, IBM brought in new people, most notably Martin Schroeter (pictured), who became CEO. Schroeter was a previous IBM employee (SVP of global markets), leaving the company in 2020. 

Maria Bartolome Winans became CMO in 2021, and the group president is Elly Keinan, another IBM veteran. Una Pulizzi, who was appointed global head of corporate affairs, was moving over from GE.

On the technical side of the business, Michael Bradshaw moved from being CIO at NBC/Universal to become Kyndryl’s CIO. An ex-CIO at US bank State Street, Antoine Shagoury was appointed CTO.