IBM has entered into an agreement to acquire Solid Information Technology, a privately held company based in Cupertino, California, and Helsinki, Finland, that provides in-memory database software. Financial details were not disclosed but the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2008. Solid Information Technology"s software uses in-memory database technology to quickly retrieve data from RAM. Using this technology, businesses can access and store data at speeds up to ten times faster than using traditional disk-based database systems. Additionally, Solid Information Technology"s database server can recover from system failure within milliseconds, providing nearly uninterrupted (99.999%) data availability.
Solid Information Technology will augment the company"s software business, which currently provides 20% of total sales and 40% of IBM"s profit. Hundreds of customers use Solid Information Technology software in over three million deployments worldwide where high speed and high availability are critical to their success. The software supports many consumer applications and services in telecommunications, retail, finance, healthcare, and other industries by allowing nearly instantaneous access to data for mobile phones, Internet-based calling, online shopping, stock and investment transactions, and other applications. IBM plans to integrate Solid Information Technology"s product offerings into IBM"s Software Group as part of its Information Management Software division.
"Customer demand for high speed, low-latency, reliable access to business information is growing exponentially as organizations of all sizes strive to ensure real-time access to enterprise data. 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, IBM Information Management.