IBM said it will acquire privately held Solid Information Technology for the purpose of adding real-time, data-access capabilities to its existing database and information-management offerings.
Currently available in more than three million deployments worldwide, Solid’s 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 company’s 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
Solid’s solidDB software is designed to support numerous consumer applications as well as services in telecom, retail, finance, and healthcare.
In particular, the product’s 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. What’s 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 IBM’s Innovation Center in San Mateo, California showed how Solid’s technology can be used to accelerate access to data stored in DB2 by a factor of 40 over a configuration lacking Solid’s enhancements.
Entering the Software Group
In a separate undertaking, the two companies have demonstrated how Solid’s 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…