IBM has acquired Gravitant, a company that develops tools to simplify purchasing of cloud computing resources from multiple vendors.

The cloudMatrix ‘cloud brokerage’ software will keep its brand, and will be integrated into the IBM Global Technology Services unit.

IBM hopes the acquisition will boost its hybrid cloud capabilities and complement the SoftLayer public cloud services.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Gravitant was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with development operations in India.

The company sells a cloud-based platform that enables customers to plan, buy and manage cloud resources from multiple suppliers in a hybrid cloud environment.

CloudMatrix works like an online cloud store where its users can compare different offerings based on price, coverage, quality of service and other metrics. They can also rate and review the services they have already used.

“The reality of enterprise IT is that it is many clouds with many characteristics, whether they be economic, capacity or security,” said Martin Jetter, SVP of Global Technology Services at IBM.

“Gravitant provides an innovative approach to add choice and simplicity to how enterprises can now manage their environments. It will be a key component as we broaden our hybrid cloud services.”

Cloud brokerage is not a new concept – it has evolved alongside cloud computing, but so far has found little recognition. German stock exchange Deutsche Börse is among the organizations that are currently operating cloud brokerage services.

Last month, IBM announced acquisition of software developer Cleversafe, planning to integrate its object storage technology – aimed at businesses that are looking to manage several Exabytes of data - into its cloud services.