Tony Baer, Principal Analyst, Software – Information Management

IBM has taken another step to ramp up its cloud presence with the acquisition of Cloudant, a five-year-old company that offers a managed NoSQL cloud database. The acquisition adds a data layer to IBM’s growing portfolio of web/mobile application developer-oriented cloud platforms, such as WorkLight, and is a good complement to SoftLayer, the managed cloud service provider that IBM acquired last year.

The core component of the Cloudant data layer is based on CouchDB, one of a group of emerging NoSQL data stores based on the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) document-oriented data format to extend its portfolio of cloud-based development platforms to web/mobile app developers. It formalizes what was already a growing partnership between Cloudant and SoftLayer, IBM’s recently acquired managed cloud platform. But it also signifies that in the growing area of developer-friendly JSON-based NoSQL databases, IBM is …