IBM has announced an agreement to acquire
Cloudant a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) provider. Cloudant, an active participant and contributor to the open source database community
Apache CouchDBTM, offers elastic scalability and innovative mobile device synchronization through its JSON cloud-based data service which allows mobile and web developers to store and access mobile data through an API.
Cloudant complements IBM’s
big data and analytics,
cloud computing and
mobileofferings beyond traditional data management by providing a database-as-a-service that enables clients to simplify and accelerate the development of scalable mobile and web apps. Cloudant also is integral to IBM's
MobileFirst solutions which enables developers who use
Worklight, IBM's mobile app development software, to create scalable apps that include a variety of structured and unstructured data.
The acquisition of Cloudant will also strengthen IBM's cloud solutions by providing developers with the tools and resources to build, test, deploy and scale cloud apps on a variety of hosting layers. Cloudant runs on the IBM
SoftLayer platform and extends IBM’s recent investment in the SoftLayer cloud infrastructure.
The Cloudant managed cloud service:
- Stores data of any structure as self-describing JSON documents
- Leverages a multi-master replication system and advanced distributed design principles to achieve elastic database clusters that can span multiple racks, data centers, or cloud providers.
-Enables global data distribution and geo-load balancing to provide high availability and enhanced performance for applications that require data to be located close to users.
-Provides full-text search, advanced geo-spatial and temporal querying, and flexible, real-time indexing.
- Integrates via a RESTful API.
- Enables data replication and sync for mobile applications, with open source, device-native software libraries.
- Offers 24x7 monitoring and management.
Cloudant will join IBM's newly formed Information and Analytics Group, a business unit within the IBM Software & Systems Group.