IBM has been named a leader in hybrid cloud management solutions by Forrester Research, being recognised as a ‘significant software provider in the technology research company's latest Wave report.

Forrester Research uses a 32-point criteria for its report, designed to help infrastructure and operations professional select the right opartner for their hybrid cloud management requirements.

The criteria include offering developers a rich library of app and infrastructure templates, APIs, and a choice of multiple public and private clouds.

According to the report, some leaders such as IBM "offer deep and broad support for prebuilt application and infrastructure templates, powerful provisioning and configuration management, role-based controls, and rich cost, performance, and capacity management features."

Forrester Research says hybrid clouds are gaining widespread market adoption because they leverage existing IT resources while integrating into public and private cloud environments.

“This gives organisations greater control of their data, improved application performance and efficiencies, enhanced collaboration all while helping to centralise IT management,” the company says.

“As a result, businesses not only reduce costs but achieve greater efficiencies.

“IBM has been aiding clients in their migration to hybrid cloud solutions for years.