Microsoft buys data modeling vendor ADRM Software

Microsoft is buying ADRM Software, a provider of large-scale industry data modeling vendor, for an undisclosed amount. Microsoft announced the acquisition of the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based company on June 18.

The kinds of large-scale data models ADRM provides are used by companies worldwide as information blueprints, which the company has built and refined over decades for analytics purposes, Microsoft officials said in the blog post announcing the acquisition.

"An industry data model enables organizations to more holistically capture and define business concepts, refine and integrate processes, and build interoperability in their ecosystem," said Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Azure Global Industry Ravi Krishnaswamy in the blog post.

ADRM Software develops data models which typically include entities, attributes, relationships, business rules, definitions of entities and attributes and more. According to ADRM's site, each set of industry models consists of an Enterprise Data Model or a Data Warehouse Model and approximately 21 to 30 Business Area Models.

Microsoft plans to combine the ADRM models with Azure's storage and compute to enable customers to create data lakes which can be used by multiple lines of business within an organization.