IBM acquires Vivisimo

IBM to acquire Vivisimo, a Pittsburgh-based provider of federated discovery and navigation software. This acquisition enables IBM to accelerate big data analytics initiatives with advanced federated capabilities allowing organizations to access, navigate, and analyze the full variety, velocity and volume of structured and unstructured data without having to move it.

IBM estimates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day from a variety of sources including sensors, social media, and billions of mobile devices around the world, making it difficult for businesses to navigate and analyze it to improve competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability. IDC estimates the market for big data technology and services will grow at an annual rate of nearly 40 percent to reach $16.9 billion by 2015.

IBM's big data platform is based on open source Apache Hadoop. The platform eases the data-intensive applications to manage and analyze petabytes of big data by providing clients with an integrated approach to analytics, helping them turn information into insights for improved business outcomes.

IBM is expanding its big data platform to run on other distributions of Hadoop, beginning with Cloudera. Cloudera is a top contributor to the Hadoop development community, and an early provider of Hadoop-based systems.

"Navigating big data to uncover the right information is a key challenge for all industries," said Arvind Krishna, general manager, Information Management, IBM Software Group.

"Businesses need a faster and more accurate way to discover and navigate big data for analysis" said John Kealey, chief executive officer, Vivisimo. "As part of IBM, we can bring clients the quickest and most accurate access to information necessary to drive growth initiatives that increase customer satisfaction, streamline processes, and boost sales," he added.