IBM already has an Information Governance product suite which comes from its acquisition of eDiscovery software PSS systems back in 2010 and Vivisimo in 2012. StoredIQ further appends to this suite to scale the governance with ability to be federated across multiple Data Servers and multiple geographies to petabyte scale fitting the big data bill. Additionally it also adds powerful indexing and search of information functions as built-in features.

StoredIQ also is rich in identifying  timely and automated disposal of data as per regulatory requirements helping reduce costs and eliminate unnecessary data that consumes infrastructure and elevates risk. It provides scalable analysis and governance of disparate and distributed email as well as file shares and collaboration sites. This includes the ability to discover, analyze, monitor, retain, collect, de-duplicate and dispose of data.

While Big Blue at one end has revolutionized processing of big data using nanophotonics technology at other end it shifted its sights to also regulate that processed data with this acquisition. Clearly all notes are trending towards retaining firmly the "Big" of "Big Data" next year. IBM intends to complete the acquisition by March, 2013 and has not disclosed any financial terms yet.

“CIOs and general counsels are overwhelmed by volumes of information that exceed their budgets and their capacity to meet legal requirements,” said Deidre Paknad, vice president of Information Lifecycle Governance at IBM. “With this acquisition, IBM adds to its unique strengths as a provider able to help CIOs and attorneys rapidly drive out excess information cost and mitigate legal risks while improving information utility for the business.”