Three years to invest 14.5 billion U.S. dollars IBM layout Big Data industry chain

The blue giant IBM is speeding up the layout of large data areas.

On the evening of February 1 in Beijing, IBM announced plans to spend $14.5 billion on acquisitions 2015 years ago; only one day, IBM has signed a definitive agreement to buy the star Analytics software portfolio, but has not disclosed the financial terms.

"The Big Data and analytics field will be IBM's future profit engine." Yesterday, an IBM executive told the first financial daily that the acquisition of Star Analytics would further advance IBM's powerful Business Analytics program, allowing users to access data sources more quickly. IBM will invest more in high-value areas such as big data and analytics, and the acquisition is only a small part of the plan, he said.

Public data show: Star Analytics, located in Reid Redwood, California, is a private enterprise making self-help Business analytics software. Star Analytics software automatically integrates important information, reporting applications, etc. within the entire enterprise or cloud computing environment.

In addition to star Analytics, the industry generally believes that Splunk and NetApp are the most popular acquisitions in IBM's latest acquisition plan. Splunk, in San Francisco, currently has a market value of $3.3 billion, and the acquisition of the company helps IBM to increase its share of the analysis of large, complex databases.

Another NetApp, with a market capitalisation of $12.9 billion, was selected for 2012 as the global Fortune 500. In FY 2013, NetApp became the world's second largest storage-system vendor with 21.5% (OEM) market share. That is why the company is also interested in mergers and acquisitions by software giants Cisco. Analysts believe NetApp has been rumored to have been the target of IBM's acquisition over the years, and the acquisition of the company will help strengthen IBM's cloud computing business, but it faces a lot of competition.

In fact, IBM has already invested heavily in large data and analysis areas. According to incomplete statistics, since 2005, IBM has spent more than 16 billion dollars to acquire 35 companies related to large data and analysis.

In 2012 alone, IBM completed 11 acquisitions, including 5 on data analysis, 2 on cloud computing, and by acquiring software companies such as Varicent Software, Vivisimo, Tealeaf Marvell, and Storediq, IBM has enhanced its competitiveness in business intelligence analytics, data presentation, social media analytics, information lifecycle management, and more. On the product side, IBM introduced "All-in-one" Pure data last October. In the big Data age, "one machine" is seen as "standard" for large data solutions for it vendors.

Industry analysts believe that IBM previously through the "Go to PC" successfully turned to enterprise-class services, is now undergoing a transition to large data services, so IBM needs to acquire mature companies to complete the control of the industry chain.

IDC's data show that 2010 global data and related hardware, software and services market, has reached 3.2 billion U.S. dollars, 2015 the entire market will be more than 17 billion U.S. dollars.

IBM has become a "seed" in the Big data field. At present, the industry's "big data" business opportunities are divided into two main categories: One is IBM, Microsoft, HP and other companies to provide "hardware + software + data," The overall solution, which is characterized by platform, the provision of basic services; the other is represented by companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google, Based on its own mass of user information, to provide precision marketing and personalized advertising promotion and other commercial activities.

Industry is expected: large data will bring the IT industry a new round of shuffle. IBM, for example, reported that over the past decade, IBM's software business revenue has doubled, with profits doubling three times-fold, and IBM's profit of more than $11 billion in 2012. Business Analytics revenue grew by 13% in 2012 and is expected to reach $1.6 billion by the end of 2015.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)