Meet Kyndryl, IBM’s newly formed IT infra services company

Technology giant IBM has finally given its recently hived off entity, temporarily called NewCo, a name. The Armonk, New York-based firm’s managed infrastructure service business, which was spun off as a separate publicly listed company in October 2020, will now be called Kyndryl.  

Kyndryl, which will also be headquartered in New York, is expected to be functional by the end of 2021.  

"Customers around the world will come to know Kyndryl as a brand that runs the vital systems at the heart of progress, and an independent company with the best global talent in the industry," Martin Schroeter, CEO of Kyndryl, said in a statement.  

"The decision to base our corporate team in one of the world's most vibrant and global urban centers underscores our commitment to the economic health of cities," he said. 

The name, as per the statement, has two parts: ‘Kyn’ refers to kinship, while ‘dryl' is derived from ‘tendril’, metaphorically referring to the coming together of relationships and new growth.  

"It will help identify us and support recognition, but the meaning of the name will be built and enhanced over time from our behaviours, aspirations and actions,” Kyndryl’s chief marketing officer Maria Bartolome Winans, said.  

Kyndryl will serve the company’s 4,600 managed services customers across 115 geographies. IBM also has plans to set up new alliances with technology partners. Once operational, Kyndryl is expected to be the world’s largest managed infrastructure service provider, with a backlog of $60 billion, according to the company.  

The company will help enterprises optimise performance through artificial intelligence and automation, and ensure better agile processes in customers’ infrastructure and data centres.  

In early March, IBM had appointed Winans as Kyndryl's CMO; and former general manager of North America and chairman of IBM Japan, Elly Keinan, as its group president.  

The cost of spinning off the new entity was estimated to be $5 billion around October 2020. At the time, the move was expected to be part of a long-term progression towards a profitable business model.  

IBM reported a 6% drop in overall revenues to $20.4 billion in the fourth quarter of financial year 2019-20, from $21.78 billion the previous year.