IBM acquires Q1 Labs, creates security division

IBM said Tuesday that it has acquired Q1 Labs, a security intelligence software company, and formed a security unit.

Q1 Labs, a privately-held company in Waltham, Mass. provides security software that aims to analyze events and deliver event monitoring via a dashboard. In many respects, Q1 Labs combines security with IBM's penchant for analytics.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Q1 Labs security stack.

With Q1 Labs, IBM has enough security assets to form a security systems unit. That unit will be led by Brendan Hannigan, CEO of Q1 Labs. IBM has acquired more than 10 security companies in the last decade. When combined with IBM's 25 analytics acquisitions including i2, which focuses on security analytics, you can see where Big Blue is headed. In a nutshell, IBM is looking to meld security with its software and services offerings.

Q1 Labs detects and flags security issues and correlates them with other events. It's flagship suite is called QRadar.

IBM's security unit will include Tivoli, Rational, security appliances, lab offerings and services, Q1, which has more than 1,800 customers, will sit on top of these assets. IBM has nine security operations centers, nine research centers, 11 security software development labs and three institutes focused on the topic.