IBM acquires DataStax to boost watsonx’s generative AI capabilities

IBM has announced its intent to acquire database and related services provider DataStax for an undisclosed sum in an effort to boost watsonx’s generative AI capabilities.

“DataStax’s technology will enhance IBM’s watsonx portfolio of products accelerating the use of generative AI, helping companies unlock value from vast amounts of unstructured data,” the company said in a statement, adding that the acquisition also builds on IBM’s commitment to open source AI offerings.

IBM’s commitment to open-source AI includes the open-source IBM Granite foundation models and Instruct Lab, which the company describes as a new approach to advancing open-source innovation around large language models (LLMs).

Santa Clara-based DataStax currently offers Apache Cassandra-powered AstraDB NoSQL database-as-a-service, Astra Streaming, and Langflow, an a open-source, web-based, no-code, graphical user interface (GUI) that allows developers to visually prototype LangChain flows and iterate them to develop applications faster.

Big Blue believes that AstraDB’s vector database will help its customer enterprise unlock insights from unstructured data. Vector search, or vectorization, especially in the wake of generative AI proliferation, is seen as a key capability by database vendors as it can reduce the time required to train AI models by cutting down the need to structure data—a practice prevalent with current search technologies. In contrast, vector searches can read the required or necessary property attribute of a data point that is being queried.

As for Langflow, IBM believes that the tool will help facilitate collaboration across diverse skill sets inside customer enterprises. DataStax acquired Langflow with Logspace, creator of the open source package, for an undisclosed sum in April of last year, with the aim of helping developers accelerate generative AI-based application development.

The database services provider said at the time that Langflow integrates with its RAGStack, an offering released in November last year to simplify the implementation of retrieval augmented generation (RAG) applications built with LangChain.

Separately, IBM pointed out that it will continue to support and engage with the open source Apache Cassandra, Langflow, and Apache Pulsar communities as DataStax has done.

DataStax is IBM’s second acquisition this year. In January, IBM announced its intent to acquire Applications Software Technology LLC, a global Oracle consultancy. The company has been on an acquisition spree since CEO Arvind Krishna took charge in April 2020. Last year, Big Blue was involved in a flurry of acquisitions, including HashiCorp, Prescinto, Kubecost, Accelalpha, SiXworks, Skyarch Networks, Pliant, and Advanced.

In 2023, IBM acquired Indonesia-based ERP specialist and cloud consulting services provider Equine Global in a bid to boost its consulting business in the Asia Pacific region. In the same month, the company acquired Manta Software, a data lineage platform, to complement its capabilities within watsonx.ai.

Prior to that, IBM had acquired software provider Apptio for $4.6 billion to help enterprises optimize their IT expenditure, particularly cloud costs. The year 2023 also saw Big Blue acquire SaaS-based PrestoDB provider Ahana in April.