IBM buys Princeton Softech

IBM is to buy data archiving company Princeton Softech for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will see IBM snapping up the company's product range and making it part of its Information Management Software division, including data archiving, classification, data privacy and test data management applications.

IBM is looking to bolster its Information on Demand campaign by adding Princeton's technology to its own. This initiative is intended to help organisations manage and organise large swathes of data while filtering out and storing unneeded information.

Big Blue said that the main promise of the acquisition was the ability to protect and manage data without affecting database performance or increasing costs.

Ambuj Goyal, general manager of Information Management at IBM, said that many companies struggle to keep a check on ever increasing amounts of information going through their organisations.

"Organisations of all sizes worldwide face the challenge of effectively managing their surging data volumes, particularly given growing governance and compliance requirements," said Goyal.

"The combination of IBM and Princeton Softech will provide our customers and partners with a single solution to manage risk more effectively and keep up with the variety of regulatory and enterprise data governance requirements."

Analysts said that the acquisition was good for IBM.

"It has gained capabilities which it could have developed itself, but not in the form of a mature product with preconfigured versions, and the high profile customer base including Volt Information Sciences in the US, Vodafone Spain, Canal+ in France and BT in the UK," said Mike Davis, senior analyst at