IBM is acquiring the data observability software provider Databand.ai, as the tech giant moves to bolster its data, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation portfolio.
Tel Aviv-based Databand provides a proactive observability platform, which is designed to help organisations fix issues with their data, including errors, pipeline failures and poor quality – all before it starts to affect their bottom line.
In an announcement, IBM said the acquisition – the value of which hasn’t been disclosed – will help it address the full spectrum of observability to help keep businesses moving.
"Our clients are data-driven enterprises who rely on high-quality, trustworthy data to power their mission-critical processes. When they don't have access to the data they need in any given moment, their business can grind to a halt," explained Daniel Hernandez, general manager for data and AI at IBM.
To tackle this, data observability uses historical trends to compute statistics about data workloads and pipelines directly at the source. This then determines if they are working and helps pinpoint where any problems reside.
Available either in a software as a service (SaaS) format or as a self-hosted software subscription, Databand’s extendable approach will allow data engineering teams to easily integrate and gain observability into their infrastructure, IBM said.
"With the addition of Databand.ai, IBM offers the most comprehensive set of observability capabilities for IT across applications, data and machine learning, and is continuing to provide our clients and partners with the technology they need to deliver trustworthy data and AI at scale," Hernandez added.
“Joining IBM will help us scale our software and significantly accelerate our ability to meet the evolving needs of enterprise clients," commented Josh Benamram, co-founder and CEO of Databand.ai.
The Databand addition marks IBM’s fifth acquisition of 2022, as it continues to strengthen its range of hybrid cloud and AI capabilities. With data observability, the company said it has identified a market it expects will continue to grow rapidly as data teams look to better understand the health of data in their systems and troubleshoot issues in real time.
For Databand, the acquisition will expand its resources and capabilities, enabling broader integrations across more of the modern data stack.
