Intelligent Enterprise

IBM on Friday said it has agreed to acquire Solid Information Technology, a privately held Finnish company that makes an in-memory database that can be used to speed up business intelligence software. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IBM said it plans to fold Solid into its information management software division. Solid's technology is expected to complement IBM's portfolio by combining the speed of Solid's in-memory database with the scalability and persistence of IBM's disk-based data servers -- DB2 and Informix Dynamic Server.

"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," Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM information management, said in a statement.

Solid's database runs in a computer's random access memory, making it possible to access and store data at speeds that are tenfold faster than disk-based database systems, according to IBM. Solid's technology is often used with applications built for the open source MySQL environment and with commercial applications.

In business intelligence, in-memory databases speed in-depth OLAP analysis by eliminating the need to build new cubes. Solid is not the only vendor offering such technology. Other vendors include QlikTech and Applix, which was acquired by BI software maker Cognos in September for $339 million. IBM in November announced its plans to buy Cognos for $5 billion. Counting Solid, IBM has announced 12 acquisitions this year.

IBM and Solid are partners in offering Solid's technology in IBM BladeCenter servers to telecommunication companies. IBM expects to close the Solid deal in the first quarter of next year.