IBM acquires BigFix to advance smart data center vision
IBM said today that it will acquire Big Fix Software, a company that will provide the platform technology that continues to advance IBM's vision of a smart data center. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Bloomberg reported the price to be $400 million.
The company brings an IT management platform that allows businesses to monitor, control and automate their "computing endpoints," such as laptops, desktops and servers from a single view.
It also boasts the built-in intelligence that can identify which devices are not in compliance with IT policies and recommend security fixes or software updates to 500,000 machines in minutes. In a statement, Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Tivoli software, said:
BigFix automates some of the most time-intensive IT tasks across the most complex global networks, helping save organizations significant amounts of time, labor, and expense. BigFix’s real-time visibility and control for globally distributed computing devices will complement IBM’s existing smarter data center offerings and strengthen our ability to build security into the fabric of the enterprise.
The company also highlighted this acquisition as its 11th in the security-related field since 2006. BigFix will become part of IBM's software group.