IBM acquired Softlayer, because otherwise their "cloud" offerings were basically marketing wank. Softlayer offered dedicated hardware, which a few years ago mig

IBM acquired Softlayer, because otherwise their "cloud" offerings were basically marketing wank. Softlayer offered dedicated hardware, which a few years ago might have been appealing because of compliancy issues or lack of beefy machines on other cloud providers. In classical fashion, IBM snoozed and the competition has caught up (<insert IBM being morons rant here>). Great post if you want more detail: https://thehftguy.com/2018/01/15/the-inevitable-demise-of-ibm-softlayer-by-aws/ https://thehftguy.com/2018/01/15/the-inevitable-demise-of-ib...