IBM said it will acquire privately held Solid Information Technology for the purpose of adding real-time, data-access capabilities to its existing and information-management offerings.
Currently available in more than three million deployments worldwide, Solids software employs in-memory database technology to access and store data in RAM at speeds up to 10 times faster than what can be achieved through the use of traditional disk-based database systems, IBM said.
The companys major clients include Alcatel, Cisco, EMC2, Nokia, and Siemens.
"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," said Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM Information Management.
UNINTERRUPTED MEMORY ACCESS
Solids solidDB software is designed to support numerous consumer applications as well as services in telecom, retail, finance, and healthcare.
In particular, the products real-time, data-access capabilities provide nearly instantaneous access to data for mobile phones, Internet-based calling, online shopping, investment transactions, and other applications, IBM said. Whats more, Solid maintains that its technology offers the ability to recover from a system failure within milliseconds..
IBM, which already partners with Solid on information management for telecommunication service providers, said it sees the acquisition as complementary to its own disk-based DB2 and Informix Dynamic Server offerings.
For example, a proof-of-concept conducted last June at IBMs Innovation Center in San Mateo, California showed how Solids technology can be used to accelerate access to data stored in DB2 by a factor of 40 over a configuration lacking Solids enhancements.
ENTERING THE SOFTWARE GROUP
In a separate undertaking, the two companies have demonstrated how Solids technology can work with IBM Bladecenter. According to the companies, the combination delivered an industry-leading throughput in a benchmark that simulated a wireless scenario involving one million subscribers.
The throughput of 43,142 transactions per second was equivalent to over 150 million phone calls per hour, the companies said.
Solid Information Technology, which is based in Cupertino, California, is slated for integration into the Information Management Software division of Big Blues Software Group.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. The deals financial terms were not disclosed.
