IBM Closes StoredIQ Big Data Acquisition

IBM announced that it has completed its deal to acquire StoredIQ to add to Big Blue’s hoard of big data offerings.

IBM announced that it has completed its acquisition of StoredIQ, a privately held, Austin, Texas-based maker of software for managing big data.

IBM said this acquisition advances its efforts to help enterprises derive value from big data, respond more efficiently to litigation and regulations, and dispose of information in an automated way that has outlived its purpose. IBM initially announced an agreement to acquire StoredIQ in December 2012. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Adding StoredIQ to IBM’s big data offerings gives organizations tools for more effective governance of the vast majority of information, including its timely disposal to eliminate unnecessary data that consumes infrastructure and elevates risk. The addition of StoredIQ builds on IBM's prior acquisitions of PSS Systems and Vivisimo as well as organic solutions that improve information economics including value-based archiving, records and retention management, e-discovery management, and disposal and data governance, IBM said.

Indeed, Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM Industry Solutions, told eWEEK IBM anticipates that it will derive even more value from StoredIQ than the systems giant originally expected. With this agreement, IBM adds to its prior investments in Information Lifecycle Governance. The addition of StoredIQ capabilities enables clients to find and use unstructured information of value. IBM's Information Lifecycle Governance suite improves information economics by helping companies lower the total cost of managing data while increasing the value derived from it.

IBM estimates that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day -- so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. As a result, chief information officers (CIOs) and general counsels (GCs) are overwhelmed by volumes of information that exceed their tax IT budgets and their capacity to meet legal requirements. Storing old, unnecessary data adds storage and infrastructure costs and compromises companies’ ability to effectively comply with legal obligations.

StoredIQ software provides scalable in-place analysis and management of disparate and distributed email, file shares, desktops and collaboration sites. It can rapidly analyze high volumes of unstructured data and can be configured to automatically collect it for e-discovery purposes as well as dispose of files and emails in compliance with regulatory requirements. As a result, legal teams can mitigate risks by meeting compliance obligations more effectively, and IT can dispose of unnecessary data and align information cost to value to take out excess costs.

“Most CIOs and GCs know they’re saving too much data, which drives up IT costs and increases legal risk,” said Deidre Paknad, IBM’s vice president of Industry Solutions, who is leading the integration of StoredIQ at IBM, in a statement. “With IBM and StoredIQ, organizations can maximize the value of big data and more effectively meet growing legal and privacy duties while disposing of data debris to control both cost and risk.”

StoredIQ has more than 120 customers worldwide, including global leaders in financial services, health care, government, manufacturing and other sectors.