Tony Baer, Principal Analyst, Software – Enterprise Solutions

Actian, the vendor formerly known as Ingres, has suddenly put itself on the map through rapid-fire acquisitions of Pervasive Software, ParAccel, and Versant Software. The die was cast more than two years ago with its acquisition of Vectorwise, a fast, single-node analytic database.

Actian’s goal is to assemble a mini-stack that includes a data integration engine and different data platforms for different transactional and analytic use cases. With the acquisitions, Actian winds up with a mix of mature, maintenance-oriented businesses that can contribute cash flow towards developing emerging data platforms for harnessing Big Data.

While Actian has bought its way to a $150m business – big enough to be noticed – its challenge is building critical mass in at least one or two of its product segments.

Deep heritage

Actian, the outgrowth of the Ingres business, has been in search of a high-growth engine …