'Take two kyndryl with a glass of water' - Channel raises eyebrows at the new name for IBM's services spin off

Kyndryl, the new name for IBM's services spin off, has been met with a mixed reaction from the IT channel, with some light heartedly mocking the name choice.

IBM first announced plans to spin out its Managed Infrastructure Services arm in October as part of its continued shift towards hybrid cloud.

But the new name choice for the standalone unit has raised some eyebrows in the IT industry.

IBM says that the "kyn" part of the name comes from the word "kinship", whereas "dryl" stems from "tendril", which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as "a thin, stem-like part of a climbing plant that holds on to walls or plants for support".

Big Blue says the name represents its belief that relationships with people are the centre of its strategy and that the "dryl" part of the name should conjure images of new growth and working with partners and customers to "advance human progress".

However it seems the name's complexity has missed the mark for some IT channel commentators.

Client director at SCC, Nick Toft, joked on LinkedIn that kyndryl could be prescribed to customers to cure IT headaches.

"I like what they've done here. ‘Is your IT giving you a headache? Take 2 Kyndryl with a glass of water'," his LinkedIn post reads.

ITAM services director at The ITAM Review, Rich Gibbons, meanwhile published a poll asking whether the name sounds like a second-rate superhero villain, a knock-off Kindle, a "cool" family tree app or a late 90s or early 2000s rapper. So far knock-off Kindle is in the lead with over 45 per cent of the vote.

Many onlookers have riffed on the theme that the new name sounds like a pharmaceutical company.

Jay McBain, principal analyst at Forrester, who used to work at IBM as a director and then at Lenovo after the acquisition of IBM's server business in 2014, said:

"I remember waking up one morning at IBM and learning that I now worked for a company called Lenovo. With today's announcement of kyndryl it appears those employees will spend years (like I did) explaining to people that we were not in pharma - or kiln drying lumber,"

Othershave commented on kyndryl's use of lowercase lettering and its use oy "y"s as an attempt to appeal to younger generations.

"Definitely strikes me as a name that's trying to be ‘hip' and ‘trendy'," said Gibbons.

Twitter has also taken the opportunity to poke fun at IBM for figuratively dressing itself in younger clothes.