IBM adds to data warehousing line

IBM is letting users shine some rays on their data warehouses thanks to technology acquired from Tanning Technology.

IBM today bought Tanning's I*W Manager product, a software system that analyzes and priorities requests for information submitted to a corporate data warehouse. Financial details of the acquisition were not released.

The product is designed for companies that have large amounts of data stored in data warehouses or databases. The product helps manage queries of that data to reduce network traffic and gives users quicker access to the information they need.

"The acquisition enables us to improve our time to market in helping customers manage their DB2 warehousing environments," said Janet Perna, IBM's general manager of data management.

As the database market becomes increasingly saturated, vendors are looking for new markets to sell their wares. For most, data warehousing is fitting that niche.

In fact, IBM's technology buy comes on the heels of Informix's purchase this week of data warehousing player Red Brick Systems. Informix bought Red Brick for about $35 million, a bargain price that analysts said bought Informix about nine months to a year in development work.

"Red Brick was definitely on the ropes and needed to do something," said Wayne Eckerson, analyst at the Data Warehouse Institute in Gaithersburg, Maryland. "And Informix was shopping around for solutions. This gets Informix where it wants to be nine months to twelve months faster than if it went it alone."