IBM networking head Andrew Coward departed from the tech giant, leaving a question mark over Big Blue’s future strategy in the networks market, alongside its AI roadmap for telecoms.

Announcing his departure on LinkedIn, the former GM of software networking shared he was departing IBM for “new opportunities in networking and AI”, with his next role yet to be confirmed.

The post also referred to the acquisitions of five companies under his tenure, while summing up Coward’s work on AI networking products, and the role of networks and apps in hybrid multi-cloud.

IBM acquisitions involving the GM included HashiCorp, Pliant, and Volta Networks. Coward was also brought in to build the company’s networking business in the wake of its 2019 Red Hat acquisition.

Coward was instrumental in consolidating IBM's various networking, orchestration, and watsonx AI offerings - with unification at Big Blue an ongoing concern since its Red Hat buyout.

What now for telecoms and networking at IBM?

Andrew Coward’s career has included VP stints at Lumina Networks, Brocade, CarrierIQ, and Juniper Networks.

He joined IBM in 2021 from a CEO role at Lumina Networks, a company he spun out from Brocade as its strategy VP. Following Brocade’s Broadcom acquisition, Lumina Networks was built with Brocade's SDN controller assets, in a move highlighting Coward’s oft-noted entrepreneurial approach.

At IBM, this method saw him buy rather than build for Big Blue, with HashiCorp, Pliant, NS1, and Volta Networks among the acquisitions he steered as GM.

Talking to SDxCentral in 2022, Coward commented that Pliant's API-driven building functions would work with IBM tools to support network modernization in response to cybersecurity and private 5G needs.

In April 2024, IBM acquired infrastructure and automation player HashiCorp for $6.4 billion. The news of the deal promised the goal was not to roll HashiCorp into Red Hat's operations, but to use its tech to help accelerate demand for Red Hat technologies, as well as the broader IBM software portfolio.

This position has arguably become less clear in recent years with HashiCorp’s deeper integration into IBM products such as Terraform.

With Coward’s departure, the future roadmap for HashiCorp - alongside the rest of IBM's networking ventures - may now face further uncertainty.

There may also be questions for the telecoms sector. Coward spoke in his role as system architect on IBM’s telecoms plans to SDxCentral, commenting that networks often lack orchestration tools to act on insight from AI, and that telcos don’t have the right foundation AI models, particularly around time-series data and network topology.

“I would love for IBM to be part of a community effort to start looking and solving these things,” Coward told SDxCentral last year.

SDxCentral has contacted IBM for comment.