New York, Dec 22 (IANS): Tech giant IBM has announced to acquire Nordcloud, a European leader in cloud implementation, application transformation and managed services, for an undisclosed sum.

Helsinki-based Nordcloud is triple certified in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

The move will further advance IBM's cloud migration and transformation capabilities, an important aspect of its hybrid cloud platform growth strategy, the company said in a statement.

"IBM's acquisition of Nordcloud adds the kind of deep expertise that will drive our clients' digital transformations as well as support the further adoption of IBM's hybrid cloud platform," said John Granger, SVP, Cloud Application Innovation and COO, IBM Global Business Services.

Nordcloud has offices in 10 European countries. Following the close of the transaction, Nordcloud will become an IBM company.

"IBM's hybrid cloud approach is very complementary with our cloud-native approach to helping clients migrate, manage and modernize in the cloud," said Fernando Herrera, Chairman and Founder, Nordcloud.

Leading IT industry analysts estimate the market for cloud professional services will exceed $200 billion by 2024.

IBM's open and flexible approach to advising, building, moving and managing clients' hybrid environments gives enterprises the freedom to choose from multiple providers to best meet their business and IT needs.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.