Microsoft buys data management vendor
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Microsoft has purchased a small, privately held data management company and will use the technology to enhance its SQL Server database, Office, and related business software, the company said Thursday.
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Hewlett-Packard plans to acquire business transactions monitoring software vendor Bristol Technology.
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Storage vendor Network Appliance said Thursday it plans to buy Onaro, a Boston company that develops storage management software.
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Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it will acquire a Chicago-based provider of enterprise group chat software to bo...
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Computer Associates Wednesday announced that it plans to buy identity and access management software maker Netegrity of Waltham, Mass.
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An acquisition and an alliance give Microsoft new tools to target market leader VMware.
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Microsoft Corp., seeking to expand in the medical sector, has agreed to acquire the assets of a privately held, Thailand-based health information system company, the software company said Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - Two years after creating a division that offers managed services, MicrosoftÂ has signed three more pilot customers and continues to expand its datacenter investments to pave the way for more deployments. In addition to its flagship customer, battery maker Energizer Holdings, Microsoft now is providing managed services for XL Capital in Bermuda as well two other customers that do not wish to be named, said Ron Markezich, vice president of Microsoft managed services. He discussed the business in an interview on Monday at the TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando. The company has received a lot of feedback from its initial deployment with Energizer and is using that information as it expands its offering to other customers, he said. Microsoft hosts and manages only its own software products for customers, though those products often run in heterogeneous IT systems. Microsoft manages a deployment of Exchange Server, SharePoint, and Live Communications Server, as well as runs a remote desktop service through its System Management Server product for 8,000 Energizer desktop users, Markezich said. The software runs in Microsoft's datacenter outside of Seattle, where Microsoft also runs the back end for its Windows Live services. Microsoft entered managed services later than many of its competitors, such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, and a diminishing group of independent managed services providers that have found it hard to compete with large vendors or have been acquired. However, Microsoft considers hosted services -- including both online consumer services and enterprise services such as its managed offerings -- as a top priority for the next several years. Two years ago, Microsoft purchased e-mail managed services provider FrontBridge Technologies. The company recently opened a new datacenter in Quincy, Wash., a location chosen for its energy prices, Markezich said. Cost is only one reason customers find managed services an attractive option, Markezich said. He declined to comment specifically on how much Microsoft charges for its services, since it is different depending on the customer. He also wouldn't say how much customers stand to save by having Microsoft manage IT assets rather than host and deploy them on premises. But he said there are other perks to going the managed services route. Unlike many other providers of managed services, Microsoft does not charge customers for rolling out a software update, so customers can get the latest software from the company without having to purchase it and deploy it themselves. "We don't say, to roll it out you have to pay us more," Markezich said. "It just comes as part of the standard service fee." Microsoft is currently deploying the newest version of its Office suite, Office 2007, at Energizer, he said. Markezich said customers also like having Microsoft host and manage their software for them because it frees up IT employees and resources that can be used in another area of the business.
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Microsoft has long been seen as a vendor of relatively small databases. But now it plans to use SQL Server 2005 to build a 162TB data warehouse for itself and a 270TB one for a foreign government.
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Backed up and integrated IBM plans on purchasing Ontario-based data protection firm DataMirror for approximately $161m. IBM will pay cash for the company, acquiring all outstanding stock for $25.88 per share.â¦
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Oracle may be willing to spend a record sum -- over $6 billion -- to acquire a middleware provider it believes will give it a permanent leg up on Microsoft's SQL Server. Does it still take a huge M&A like this to stay on par with Microsoft?
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And ends spat with LG Microsoft has bought data management firm Stratature to provide improvements to its SQL server, business intelligence, and SharePoint products.â¦
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InfoWorld - Microsoft has offered to buy enterprise search software company Fast Search And Transfer for 6.6 billion Norwegian kroner ($1.2 billion), it said Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ is looking to add real-time capabilities to its data integration software by buying Canadian firm DataMirrorÂ for about C$170 million (US$162.3 million). The two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire all outstanding DataMirror common shares for C$27 per share, they announced Monday. IBM's offer represents a premium of 19.4 percent compared with the average trading price of DataMirror's common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange over the last 20 days. In Monday midmorning trading, DataMirror's shares rose 4.2 percent on the news, up from Friday's close of C$22.50. Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal is set to close in the third quarter of this year. DataMirror's Transformation Server software identifies and captures data that has been added, updated, or deleted, and it enables the changed information to be delivered in real time to processes, applications, and databases. IBM previously partnered with DataMirror, pointing customers to the vendor whenever they needed heterogenous real-time change data-capture software. However, recently, it became clear that IBM needed to own the technology since more and more of its users required it. "DataMirror's capabilities are very important for our Information on Demand strategy," said Michael Curry, director, product strategy and management, information platform and solutions at IBM. Having the ability to note data changes as they occur and react accordingly is vital for users of dynamic warehouses, master data management, and service-oriented architecture, he added. Information on Demand is designed to give users access to all kinds of data regardless of where it's stored in their enterprises. A key piece of that strategy isÂ Information Server, data integration software IBM released last year, based on technology it acquired through the 2005 $1.1 billion purchase of Ascential. IBM plans to continue offering DataMirror's data integration, auditing, high availability, and data replication software as stand-alone products as well as incorporating them into Information Server, Curry said. "We've already seen very strong traction for Information Server," he added. Acquiring DataMirror is testimony to the fact that the Information Server business is growing so well that IBM continues to invest in the product, Curry said. IBM expects to release a more detailed road map for DataMirror once the acquisition has closed. DataMirror will become part of IBM's Information Management Software unit, which is headed up by Ambuj Goyal. IBM was particularly attracted to DataMirror by its very broad support of different types of data, Curry said. The Canadian vendor provides data integration on Windows, Unix, IBM's System i servers and mainframes and supports databases from IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase. DataMirror also has its own Java database called PointBase. There's no real overlap between DataMirror's technologies and what IBM already has, Curry said. IBM already provides some data capture capabilities but they're limited to its DB2 database. IBM intends to continue DataMirror's partnerships with other vendors, notably BEA Systems, Business Objects, Microsoft, and Oracle. Such relationships are vital to ensure that IBM can be effective in offering heterogenous data integration, Curry said. With its headquarters in Markham, Ontario, DataMirror has around 2,200 customers. IBM hopes to retain all of the firm's 220-plus staff, Curry said.
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(InfoWorld) - PM (performance management) vendors appear to be universal in their delight at the news that Oracle will buy Hyperion for $3.3 billion. Their pleasure comes mainly from believing that enterprise-level companies do not want to buy a PM solution from an application or database vendor, preferring instead to purchase mission-critical applications like PM from an independent company with domain expertise and a unique understanding of the space. "A Goldman Sachs survey said that over 65 percent of CIOs prefer to purchase their BI and PM applications from an independent vendor," said Michelle Mollot, vice president of market strategy at Cognos. First and foremost, Oracle will have to convince customers that the Hyperion application will not be optimized for the Oracle database environment and rather that it will be optimized for applications that are important to their company, especially because most large companies have a heterogeneous database and application environment that requires a high level of open and ERP-independent software. The last thing a customer wants is performance management to be an accessory to a database or an application, adds Piet Loubser, senior vice president and director of market intelligence at Business Objects. There appears to be universal agreement from Hyperion competitors that performance management must live transversely across all systems in a heterogeneous environment. "You cant afford to have any bias to other applications that might exist in an infrastructure," said Loubser. Trevor Walker, vice president of marketing at Cartesis, a financial consolidation vendor, said that in the foreseeable future, there will be a lack of clarity on applications from Oracle and where they sit on the application roadmap. "It opens up a lot of opportunities," he said. Craig Schiff, president of BPM partners, a vendor-neutral consulting firm that helps companies launch BPM initiatives, says the acquisition will be a significant challenge for Oracle. "No transactional vendor has been able to sell PM applications. Nobody buys SAPs PM apps," Schiff said. Â The only value Oracle may offer to its customers is integration with its underlying data structure. But Schiff says Hyperion itself is still struggling with integration issues between its own applications, such as financial management, planning, and BI tools. Schiff may know a thing or two about Hyperion as he was the second hire at the company back in the 1980s. While Oracle is spending R&D dollars on integration with ERP, most large companies see the major benefit from single-solution providers in the fact that all of their research and development dollars are focused on PM. "Because PM is a strategic front-office solution with high visibility, it is not an area you compromise on," said Schiff. Not all analysts agree, however. Despite the delight expressed by vendors spoken to for this report, Josh Greenberg, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting has a different point of view: "Competitors should be worried." According to Greenberg, Hyperion lets Oracle have a conversation with the financial management of a company, the C-level executives. Hyperion plus a big ERP suite can be potentially a lucrative and competitive combination if it can make sense in the context of what Oracle already has. "The trick is integration and assimilation," said Greenberg. Schiff also sees another side to the acquisition, saying it could be a preemptive move before Microsoft unveils Performance Point Server, its PM solution. Schiff says that Microsoft is going to be a big player in the performance space and that IBM may enter the fray as well, picking up Cognos next It is the conclusion of all analysts and vendors in this space that performance management as a separate niche has become extremely mission-critical ever since Sarbanes-Oxley. Up until Sarbanes, the systems for financial management were not effective, and the budget process was too loose, many say.Â  PM is the discipline companies need to apply to reign in risk, notes Cognos' Mollot. It has by default become the new battleground for the hearts and minds of enterprise customers, and that may explain why Oracle made its move. "Application vendors have been able to automate the transaction system phase and now PM becomes the next competitive advantage," said Mollot.
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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , pushing to bolster its Internet security offerings, has acquired anti-spyware maker Giant Company Software Inc.
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The database provider continues to buy its growth.