IBM has announced it is acquiring applications performance monitoring (APM) company Instana to aid in its hybrid cloud and AI strategy.

IBM made headlines in October when it announced its plans to split itself into two companies. The legacy business will be split into a new company, while the core IBM doubles down on hybrid cloud and AI services.

To assist in those goals, the company is now acquiring Instana, a startup that uses AI to help companies monitor the performance of cloud apps and services. The startup’s platform is a natural fit for IBM’s newfound focus.

“Our clients today are faced with managing a complex technology landscape filled with mission-critical applications and data that are running across a variety of hybrid cloud environments – from public clouds, private clouds and on-premises,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Cloud and Data Platform, IBM. “IBM’s acquisition of Instana is yet another important step that we are taking to provide companies with the most complete portfolio of AI-automated solutions to tackle this enormous challenge and help prevent unforeseen IT incidents that can cost a business in lost revenue and reputation.”

At the same time, being part of IBM will help Instana develop its service even more, becoming a dominant player in the DevOps community.

“With the added responsibility of ensuring the build and run quality of the software they develop, DevOps teams need a new generation of application performance monitoring and observability capabilities to succeed,” said Mirko Novakovic, co-founder and CEO, Instana. “Instana’s observability capabilities combined with IBM’s AI-powered automation capabilities across hybrid cloud environments will give clients a full view of their application performance to best optimize operations.”