IBM has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire StoredIQ Inc., a privately held company based in Austin, Texas. IBM says StoredIQ will advance its efforts to help clients derive value from big data andrespond more efficiently to litigation and regulations, dispose of information that has outlived its purpose and lower data storage costs. The acquisition is about “information economics," Ken Bisconti, VP of ECM Marketing, IBM, tells 5 Minute Briefing. “It is really about managing the value of content and information, and helping also to dispose of it defensibly as it becomes of less value."
IBM intends to incorporate StoredIQ, which is already an IBM partner, into its Software Group and its Information Lifecycle Governance business. The acquisition – which builds on prior acquisitions of PSS Systems in 2010 and Vivisimo in 2012 – is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013.
By adding StoredIQ to its Information Lifecycle Governance suite IBM aims to give organizations more effective data governance, including efficient electronic discovery and timely disposal, to eliminate unnecessary data that consumes infrastructure and elevates risk. As a result, business leaders can access and analyze big data to gain insights for better decision-making. Legal teams can mitigate risk by meeting e-discovery obligations more effectively. Also, IT departments can dispose of unnecessary data and align information cost to value to take out excess costs.
StoredIQ software provides scalable analysis and governance of disparate and distributed email as well as file shares and collaboration sites. This includes the ability to discover, analyze, monitor, retain, collect, de-duplicate and dispose of data. In addition, StoredIQ can rapidly analyze high volumes of unstructured data and automatically dispose of files and emails in compliance with regulatory requirements.
“We see organizations all the time in these ‘store-everything’ modalities,” says Bisconti, recalling a recent conversation with people from a global bank who said that they had not effectively deleted anything since 1994. “On average, we see customers doubling their total amount of information under management every 18 to 24 months,” says Bisconti, pointing out that, as data volumes expand, it is not only storage costs that increase, but also the risks and costs associated with having to discover it or include it in regulatory compliance.
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