Privately held StoredIQ provides software for management, search and compliance with structured and unstructured enterprise data, particularly in the legal and insurance fields. IBM noted that the vendor is expected to carry through its strength in e-discovery as it pertains to big data sets, a segment StoredIQ has focused on of late with solutions and even an executive blog. The vendor will become part of IBM’s Information Lifecycle Governance suite. In a statement on the planned acquisition, Deidre Paknad, IBM VP of Information Lifecycle Governance, pointed to StoredIQ’s potential to “help CIOs and attorneys rapidly drive out excess information cost and mitigate legal risks while improving information utility for the business.”
IBM noted that its data governance and discovery plans for StoredIQ follow up on previous buyouts of PSS Systems and Vivisimo. They also follow on the eight-month build out of IBM’s enterprise data solutions and infrastructure expertise portfolio PureSystems, the result of $2 billion in R&D and an effort to give Big Blue more leverage in the big data marketplace.
IBM has also hardly been alone among the largest vendors scooping up smaller companies connected to the big data space. The International Institute for Analytics recently predicted that up to half of the big data analytics firms started in the last few years would be bought out, merged or out of money within the next year.
Based in Austin and founded in 2001, StoredIQ’s executive team previously held leadership roles at BMC, NICE Systems and startups bought out by Axway and Sage Software.
The financial details and plans for StoredIQ employees and executives were not disclosed. IBM anticipates it to close in the first quarter of 2013.
Justin Kern is senior editor at Information Management and can be reached at justin.kern@sourcemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @IMJustinKern.
