IBM is buying Clearleap, a provider of cloud based video services, to boost its cloud computing initiatives. Financial details were not disclosed.

Clearleap will be integrated into the IBM Cloud platform to provide enterprises with a fast and easy way to manage, monetise and grow user video experiences and deliver them securely over the Web and mobile devices. The news is part of IBM’s broader strategy to help clients unlock the value of video as it grows in importance in business. IBM is advancing its cloud strategy to improve the performance and management of this powerful tool, and help clients extract insight from it.

IBM says ‘increasingly connected consumers want video delivered when they want it and to the multiple devices they use for entertainment and information. In business, video has become a staple of communications across all industries as a primary method to engage with customers and employees for CEO webcasts, conference keynotes, training & education, customer care, how-to videos, and more.

As a result, clients across industries are demanding a secure, scalable, and open cloud-based solution to manage their video services. This is especially significant given researchers estimate that 80 per cent of the world’s data is unstructured and dark to computer systems that cannot effectively manage or exploit it. Video makes up a significant part of that data.’

The Clearleap video platform is optimized for massive scalability, which enables clients to ramp up and support millions of concurrent users within seconds to support special events. The innovations have attracted leading brands such as HBO, A+E Networks, the NFL, BBC America, Sony Movie Channel, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon Communications, among others.

Today’s news is the latest in a series of organic and external investments IBM has made in recent years in the areas of video and large data file management to help clients overcome those challenges.

In 2014, IBM acquired Aspera, which develops a technology to speed large data transfers over broadband networks. In November, IBM completed the acquisition of Cleversafe, Inc., a developer of object-based storage software and appliances that enable organizations to quickly store, manage and retrieve unstructured data. Also integrated into the IBM Cloud, the Cleversafe and Aspera technologies will be leveraged for use with Clearleap to help clients more quickly store, index and retrieve video content through the cloud.

IBM itself has been a long-time developer of video and digital media innovations and has been awarded more than 1,000 patents in the field since 1995, and has won four Emmy Awards for video related innovations.

“IBM is focused on being an essential partner to the rapidly changing M&E industry by helping our clients deliver personalised content to the right customer in real time anywhere in the world,” said Steven Canepa, General Manager, Global Media & Entertainment Industry, IBM. “The combination of Clearleap with our proven analytics and hybrid cloud capabilities will deliver exciting new video solutions that will fundamentally change communications across every industry.”

Founded in 2008, Clearleap is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. It operates data centers in Atlanta; Las Vegas; Frankfurt, Germany; and Amsterdam.