IBM (NYSE: IBM) is making another acquisition, this time in the “big data” analytics space.

Big Blue said Wednesday it had agreed to acquire Texas-based StoredIQ, which is privately held.

The company was cited this year as a “Cool Vendor” by research firm Gartner.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal is the latest in a recent series of acquisitions in which IBM is broadening its footprint into data analytics and storage.

“StoredIQ will advance IBM’s efforts to help clients derive value from big data and respond more efficiently to litigation and regulations, dispose of information that has outlived its purpose and lower data storage costs,” IBM said in announcing the deal.

StoredIQ says its technology enables companies to deal with big data without being intimidated.

“With StoredIQ, you can quickly and cost-effectively identify, analyze, and act on data to meet any business requirement – without first moving it to a repository or specialty application,” the company says. “StoredIQ’s Data Intelligence solutions enable you to know what data’s relevant to a critical litigation matter, to know what data’s no longer needed or just clouding issues and raising costs, and to be able to respond confidently to any regulatory or customer inquiry.”

IBM is building what it calls “Information Lifecycle Governance,” seeking to help clients grow with regulatory changes and older unstructured data.

Its plan, IBM says, helps customers by:

  • “Eliminating unnecessary cost and risk with defensible disposal of unneeded data
  • “Enabling businesses to realize the full value of information as it ages
  • “Aligning cost to the value of information
  • “Reducing information risk by automating privacy, e-discovery, and regulatory policies”

StoredIQ’s software is designed to analyze and govern data from a variety of sources, such as email and files.

“This includes the ability to discover, analyze, monitor, retain, collect, de-duplicate and dispose of data,” IBM explained.

IBM employs an estimated 10,000 people across North Carolina.

[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out 10 years of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]