IBM to Acquire Solid Information Technology

By Greg McNevin

December 27, 2007: In another bid to boost its information on-demand portfolio, and its 12th acquisition of the year, IBM has announced that it is acquiring the privately held in-memory database software developer Solid Information Technology.

Based in Helsinki, Finland, the developer will further bolster IBM’s global information on-demand strategy by adding real-time data access capabilities to its database and information management offerings.

Solid’s software uses in-memory database technology to rapidly retrieve data from RAM, enabling businesses to access and store data up to ten times faster than using traditional disk-based database systems.

Furthermore, Solid claims its tech can recover from system failure within milliseconds, enabling basically uninterrupted (99.999 percent) data availability.

Apart from adding new capabilities to IBM’s arsenal, the acquisition is also expected to boost IBM’s software business’s bottom line, which currently provides 20 percent of total sales and 40 percent of IBM's profit.

IBM will integrate Solid’s offerings into its software group as part of its Information Management Software division, with its software deftly complimenting the firm’s disk-based data server offerings - DB2 and Informix Dynamic Server.

“Customer demand for high speed, low-latency, reliable access to business information is growing exponentially as organisations of all sizes strive to ensure real-time access to enterprise data,” said Ambuj Goyal, general manager, IBM Information Management. “Together, IBM and Solid Information Technology will provide a comprehensive set of capabilities that enable companies to deliver trusted information in real-time to every person and every business transaction.”

Financial details were not disclosed.

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