Navigating big data—IBM to acquire Vivisimo

As part of its expanding big data initiative, IBM reports it will acquire privately held search, discovery and navigation provider Vivisimo.

IBM says Vivisimo’s technology will be incorporated into its big data platform to help companies exploit big data and automate the flow of that information into business analytics applications. Customers will be able to better understand consumer behavior in order to, for example, manage customer churn and network performance, detect fraud in real time and execute data-intensive marketing campaigns, IBM adds.

IBM also is expanding its big data platform to support multiple Apache Hadoop distributions in addition to its own, beginning with Cloudera. IBM will certify on Cloudera’s Hadoop distribution with its big data platform, helping clients protect their investment in Cloudera while benefiting from its enterprise platform capabilities, claims IBM.