IBM Completes Acquisition of StreamSets and webMethods, Bolstering its Automation, Data and AI Portfolios

IBM announced it has completed its acquisition of StreamSets and webMethods from Software AG after receiving all required regulatory approvals. The acquisition brings together leading capabilities in integration, API management and data ingestion.

The acquisition builds on IBM’s extensive software portfolio, with StreamSets adding new data ingestion capabilities to IBM’s AI and data platform, and webMethods bringing Integration Platform as a Service (iPaas) capabilities to IBM’s Automation solutions. IBM’s clients and partners will now have access to one of the most modern and comprehensive application and data integration platforms in the industry to drive innovation and prepare business for AI.

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Organizations are facing an explosion of apps, APIs, events and data spread across hybrid cloud environments worldwide. In fact, IDC estimates that 1 billion new applications are expected by 2028 due to the rapid emergence of generative AI1. As organizations continue their digital transformation journeys, application and data integration solutions are critical for application modernization and effectively deploying AI across the enterprise.

StreamSets and webMethods currently serve more than 1,500 companies across the globe and will provide additional integration technologies for next-generation AI applications that require data and connectivity to everything, everywhere. And, the industry is continuing to grow, with IDC predicting the worldwide integration software market to exceed $18.0 billion in 20272.

“This is an important acquisition for IBM as we help our clients turn complexities into competitive advantage,” said Dinesh Nirmal, Senior Vice President, Products, IBM Software. “StreamSets and webMethods bring new capabilities to our clients to embrace data and AI to better manage the growth and complexity of applications. We will empower integrators, developers, and line of business IT to build and manage integrations at an even greater and more impactful scale.”

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StreamSets adds cloud-based, real-time data ingestion capabilities for various types of data to watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform. Data ingestion helps move massive amounts of data from multiple sources to a centralized storage center where it can then be utilized by other systems/applications. When that data moves between sources and targets, streaming tools like StreamSets provide updated data in real-time to target destinations. This hybrid and multi-cloud ready product, which IBM plans to embed as a premium feature in watsonx.data, makes it easier for users to ingest, enrich, and harness the potential of streaming data enabled through features like offset handling and delivery guarantees.

StreamSets will also further extend the breadth and depth of IBM’s Data Fabric and Data Integration capabilities through enabling the design of streaming data pipelines. It will complement IBM DataStage and Databand into a deeply integrated offering for data engineers, catering to multiple patterns of data integrated, infused with data observability capabilities. IBM plans to make StreamSets available across all major hyperscalers, including GCP (current) and Azure/AWS (in-progress), as well as on-premises.

webMethods helps organizations manage the tangled web of systems, applications and data silos within business environments. The webMethods Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) enables users to deploy and execute integrations anywhere, while still including outputs in unified integration flows. This helps global organizations meet local data sovereignty requirements while driving enterprise-wide innovation and taking advantage of centralized management.

IBM plans to extend the webMethods iPaaS to support the IBM integration products, giving current customers a path to multi-cloud hybrid integration. By supporting various patterns of integration, including applications, APIs, events, and B2B, IBM will help enable users to compose modern, unified, and seamless applications and services.

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