IBM acquires Watchfire, expands governance and management unit

Compliance monitoring and risk management are growing niches, and IBM is moving aggressively to expand the beach head it has already established in these niches. The company has just completed the acquisition of Waltham, Massachusetts-based Watchfire Corporation, a privately held security and compliance testing software company. The acquisition extends the IBM Governance and Risk Management strategy by broadening security and compliance management capabilities in the software development lifecycle.

Watchfire’s products help customers manage Web application security and Web content quality and compliance to help ensure the business integrity of their online businesses. The combination of Watchfire and IBM will thus help customers integrate Web application security and compliance management early on and throughout the software development process — in the process allowing them to define, test, and track the compliance of their applications with security, legal, and corporate guidelines. The first move on IBM’s part will be to integrate its Rational software quality management solutions with Watchfire’s security and compliance testing services to enhance and simplify the web application development process.

IBM has been casting its net widely, and has added several governance and risk management capabilities through recent acquisitions in its Global Technology Services and Software Group divisions, including Atlanta, Georgia-based Internet Security Systems, Herndon, Virginia-based Consul, Costa Mesa, California-based FileNet, and Armonk, New York-based Micromuse.