Roundup: IBM, Arista, AboveNet

Here’s a roundup of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

IBM to acquire Netezza. IBM announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire data analytics specialist Netezza (NZ) in a cash deal for $27 per share or about 1.7 billion. "IBM is bringing analytics to the masses," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software and Systems. "We continue to evolve our capabilities for systems integration, bringing together optimized hardware and software, in response to increasing demand for technology that delivers true business value.  Netezza is a perfect example of this approach." With an IBM study showing that 83 percent of CIO's identifying analytics as a top concern this acquisition builds on IBM's $12 billion investment over the past four years in 23 analytics related companies. Following the close of the acquisition, Netezza will be integrated to IBM's Information Management software portfolio. 

Arista and Mellanox deliver speed breakthrough. Arista Networks and Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) announced that IBM WebSphere MQ Low Latency Messaging maintained a latency of 4 microseconds at rates up to 100,000 messages per second and 6 microseconds at one million messages per second using Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN network cards with RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) and Arista 7100 10 GigE switch.  “The combination of low latency Ethernet switches from Arista and networking solutions from Mellanox provides financial services applications with leading low-latency and sustained performance that meet the financial market’s higher message rate requirements," said John Monson, vice president of marketing at Mellanox.

AboveNet expands in European markets. AboveNet (ABVT) announced that they are expanding their international network to key European markets with growing demand for dedicated, high performance and high bandwidth services. The expansion connects AboveNet to London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris.  “AboveNet remains focused on investing in markets where bandwidth demands continue to increase,” said Bill LaPerch, chief executive officer of AboveNet. “The expansion of our network across Europe will enable existing and new customers to benefit from the fastest speeds and most secure connections to their business critical data and applications.” The expansion specifically targets a high concentration of web-centric businesses, financial services organizations and enterprises with a multinational presence.