IBM bought my former employers DataMirror earlier this week. Obviously their main interests will be the HA product line (a direct value add for them), and then the Transformation Server (TS) real time data integration components. Others have written here and here, so I won't labour that except to say that as part of the package they have won Constellar Hub (formerly dear old Information Junction - there's a phrase that doesn't escape my lips too often).
DataMirror never really "got" Constellar. Sure, I think they sweated the customers enough to make a return on their CDN$10million investment (what a steal that was!), but they never made a serious effort (afaik) to bring together the best of the Hub and TS. A shame, because I think it could have been a winner compared to the still rather tired 1990s EAI products like Informatica, DataStage, Ab Initio etc. In fact, TS+Hub could have turned out not unlike the Oracle Data Integrator (but with added "publish / subscribe", and strong IBM and Oracle partnerships).
Now the boot is on the other foot. Will IBM "get" DataMirror and its various product lines? All we can be reasonably sure of is that the Hub is now officially past its sell by date...
Am I glad I left DataMirror in 2001, and so didn't get bought again 6 years later? On balance, I think so. But I know some who have stayed all along - will they stay with IBM too?
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