IBM to Acquire BigFix to Advance Smarter Data Centers

IBM (News - Alert) plans to acquire BigFix, Inc., a privately-held company based in Emeryville, Calif., in a move that allows IBM to extend security and compliance globally to thousands of laptops, PCs and servers from the data center.

IBM says that the acquisition accelerates IBM's efforts to help organizations more intelligently secure the enterprise by managing and automating security and compliance updates on thousands of computers.

BigFix will be integrated into IBM Software Group, which has made approximately 60 acquisitions since 2003.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, subject to regulatory approvals. Financial details were not disclosed by the companies.

In announcing the acquisition, IBM said that organizations today are faced with higher costs and more risk to protect themselves against security threats, often with limited warning. While many vendors broadcast security patches and updates indiscriminately, BigFix software has built-in intelligence that can identify which devices are not in compliance with corporate IT policies and recommend security fixes and timely software updates to 500,000 machines in a matter of minutes, IBM 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,' said Al Zollar, general manager, IBM Tivoli software. '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.'

BigFix has more than 700 customers in industries such as the federal government, retail, entertainment, healthcare, education and financial services.

BigFix software can manage the following key functions from a single view:

* Secure by Design: BigFix will contribute to IBM's security infrastructure that is secure by design, consolidating endpoint protection, systems lifecycle management, security configuration and      vulnerability management. BigFix's platform helps distribute and manage a client's anti-virus, anti-malware, firewall and network access control software.

* IT Compliance: Organizations can have a single view of thousands of computers running in the data center, get real-time reporting of compliance status and deploy new software distributions and tools to      help assure compliance. BigFix manages these functions centrally across Windows, Mac, UNIX, and Linux operating systems, avoiding customized services and consultant solutions.

* Energy and Resource Consumption: Organizations can use BigFix technology to manage power consumption by being able to automatically configure and shutdown desktops overnight, helping save thousands of dollars in energy use. Clients can monitor global print usage to help reduce costs and environmental harm.

BigFix replaces fragmented collections of single-purpose tools with a unified visibility and control architecture that consolidates up to 18 security, IT compliance, decision support, and green computing functions. Founded in 1997, BigFix has more than 200 employees and 120 resellers.

IBM Global Technology (News - Alert) Services and BigFix have been working together since 2009 to incorporate BigFix solutions into IBM's services portfolio.

In recent company news, BigFix recently announced that it has adopted as the service delivery platform by the global mobility capability team of BT Global Services (News - Alert) for its new service, BT MobileXpress Desktop Management.