What is data integration and why is IBM spending $1.1 billion dollars to acquire publicly-traded data integration vendor, Ascential Software?

The British Columbia Government Information Resource Management Glossary defines data integration as:

The process of blending data items from various distinct sources to create a larger and more comprehensive body of knowledge.

Data integration provides the ability to pull information from a number of repositories in order to build a database that shows a broad view. As such, data integration is an essential part of data warehousing and business intelligence systems.

This is a software niche that’s in big demand. Ascential’s total revenue stream held true to the corporate moniker in 2004, shooting up 46% for a respectable $271.9 million for the the year.

From the Ascential website:

Ascential Software Corporation (Nasdaq: ASCL) is the leader in enterprise data integration. Customers and partners worldwide use the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite™ to confidently transform data into accurate, reliable and complete business information to improve operational performance and decision-making across every critical business dimension. Our comprehensive end-to-end solutions provide on demand data integration complemented by our professional services, industry expertise, and methodologies.

IBM will pay $18.50 per share for the Westboro, MA-based data integration vendor, subject to Ascential shareholder and regulatory approvals. The deal is slated to close in the second quarter of 2005.

Additional data integration specialists include: Altova, DataMirror, Group 1, Informatica, iWay, Metamatrix, Pervasive, Sunopsis, and many others.