IBM's recently announced plans to buy SPSS, maker of specialized analytics software, will result in a wave of further consolidation in the space, according to a new Forrester Research report.
"IBM's acquisition of SPSS marks an industry tipping point. In the advanced analytics segment, the deal is having the same impact that IBM's Cognos buy had on the BI market," Forrester said.
[ Discover what's new in business applications with InfoWorld's Technology: Applications newsletter and Killer Apps blog. ]
Advanced analytics software goes beyond the reports and dashboard capabilities of traditional BI (business intelligence) tools, helping users answer questions about future events and explore "what-if" scenarios, as well as pull together and analyze unstructured information from a variety of sources, the report said.
While Oracle, SAP, and other platform companies already have some of these capabilities in their portfolios, IBM's SPSS bid has competitors scrambling for a response, according to Forrester.
In the next year, a range of top BI vendors will either merge, partner or buy up many pure-play analytics vendors, such as KXEN and Angoss, according to Forrester.
Forrester particularly singles out SAP, saying the vendor will make a deal "soon," and could even submit a competitive bid for SPSS. SAP is already planning to buy SAF AG, a German company that makes analytics software aimed at retailers and wholesalers.
An SAP spokesman declined to comment on Forrester's report.
Meanwhile, a major potential acquisition target is SAS Institute, which reported $2.26 billion in sales last year, and has a large portfolio of data mining, predictive analytics, and traditional BI tools.
It's unlikely that SAP would buy SAS because of "a huge overlap" with its own portfolio, but other potential suitors include Hewlett-Packard, EMC, and Oracle, Forrester said.
Even IBM may not be done buying companies, according to Forrester. "There are still plenty of opportunities in the next generation of BI for IBM to go after, such as free-form in-memory analytics (QlikTech), end-to-end BI life-cycle management (Kalido), guided search (Endeca), and many more."
Get the independent advice and expertise you need to support a virtual workforce.
The increase in Linux popularity has increased the frequency and sophistication of malware attacks. Read this 2 page white paper now to learn how you can protect your Linux environment with real-time protection that is certified by all major Linux vendors.
Download now »
Ensuring acceptable application delivery will become even more difficult over the next few years. As a result, IT organizations need to ensure that the approach that they take to resolving the current application delivery challenges can scale to support the emerging challenges. This handbook elaborates on the key tasks associated with planning, optimization, management and control and provides decision criteria to help IT organizations choose appropriate solutions.
Download now »
A common misconception is that mid-range storage requirements are dramatically different than that of a larger enterprise. Mid-range storage users may require less capacity, but they have similar functionality and management requirements. This ESG paper examines mid-range storage needs and reviews a new solution that adjusts size while retaining value, performance and functionality.
Download now »
Like any valuable resource, IT is a terrible thing to waste. But by applying the same lean techniques that have been used to streamline manufacturing processes, IT departments can reduce costs, improve performance and better manage resources.
Download now! »
Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy for CA's Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit, explains why difficult economic times drive the need for simplified management capabilities and advanced automation tools.
Listen now! »
According to a recent study CA conducted with 300 CIOs and top IT executives, 64 percent of respondents say they've already invested in virtualization, and the other 36 percent reported that they plan to invest in virtualization.
Download now! »
In this video learn about process automation in a virtualized world. How CA and VMware are enabling enterprise datacenter automation.
View now! »
14 Recommendations
