IBM To Acquire App Management Vendor Cyanea

IBM on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire Cyanea Systems Corp., a move that's expected to give IBM the technology it needs to extend its systems management software into transaction-heavy, electronic-commerce environments.

IBM, which did not release financial details, said it would integrate Cyanea software into IBM's Tivoli systems-management tools, which include application-management technology obtained through the acquisition of Candle Corp. earlier this year.

Today, systems management is confined to one computer network within a facility. Cyanea's technology, however, would make it possible for a company conducting business transactions over the Internet with suppliers and partners to monitor and troubleshoot application performance across the network, which would comprise systems in facilities in different regions, Judith Hurwitz, analyst for Hurwitz & Associates said.

"No one selling a systems management platform owns that space today," Hurwitz said. "It's the next frontier."

Nevertheless, the task ahead for IBM is huge, since it will have to integrate Tivoli, a complex system; with Candle's technology for managing mainframe applications and Cyanea software into a cohesive platform, Hurwitz said."What IBM is attempting to do here is big," Hurwitz said. "My guess is it will take 24 months to 36 months at the most optimistic."

IBM is expected to announce a roadmap in two months.

IBM, Armonk, N.Y., resells Cyanea's software as part of its WebSphere brand and holds about an 11 percent stake in the 3-year-old Oakland, Calif., company. Under the acquisition, IBM will buy out other investors.

IBM has embarked on a strategy of acquiring specialized companies to build out its software infrastructure products, a part of its $14 billion software group.

Within the market for software-management tools, IBM competes with Computer Associates International Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and BMC Software Inc.0