Syncsort inhales Cogito, ergo Big Data and Big Iron can be friends

Big iron, big data and cloudy tools biz Syncsort has bought UK software biz Cogito to help it bring IBM mainframe database data into Big Data analytics, and to make the mainframes run better.

Syncsort was originally a mainframe data sorting company, but it now focuses on Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) capabilities for Hadoop and Big Data, with data stored on mainframes being processed for analytics running on X86 servers. For example, its DMX-h product offers Hadoop data-sorting.

Cogito makes software that can improve the performance of IBM DB2 and CA IDMS database management systems on IBM z/OS, and access z Systems mainframe data. It is a privately owned UK-based company founded in 1989 and specialising in tools and utilities for IBM DB2 and CA IDMS. The company has a mass of mainframe-using customers.

Syncsort says more than 80 per cent of corporate data resides on, or originates on, mainframes today. It reckons it can pump some of this mainframe data out to Big Data platforms like Apache Hadoop, Spark and Splunk, while also increasing mainframe efficiency and lowering costs.

We're told that Cogito's EZ-DB2 for IBM DB2 and EZ-DB for CA IDMS products can cut application response time, throughput and CPU utilisation, and lower metered mainframe costs. It's said EZ-DB2 can resolve complications in performance optimization coming from increasing volumes of dynamic SQL from distributed Java and .Net applications, ad hoc query reporting tools and packaged applications.

This is Syncsort’s third acquisition of a UK-based mainframe software company. The terms of the acquisition have not been revealed. For Syncsort the future is Big Iron and Big Data: cogito ergo sum. ®