IBM entered into a definitive agreement to acquire StoredIQ, a big data storage company, for an undisclosed amount.

StoredIQ, Austin, Texas, will allow IBM to help clients respond more efficiently to litigation and regulations, dispose of information that has outlived its purpose, and lower data storage costs, according to IBM.

"CIOs and general counsels are overwhelmed by volumes of information that exceed their budgets and their capacity to meet legal requirements," said Deidre Paknad, vice president of Information Lifecycle Governance at IBM, in a statement. "With this acquisition, IBM adds to its unique strengths as a provider able to help CIOs and attorneys rapidly drive out excess information cost and mitigate legal risks while improving information utility for the business."

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The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013, and IBM plans to add StoredIQ to its Software Group and its Information Lifecycle Governance business, according to the company.

IBM has made acquisitions in the rapid discovery and data disposal space with PSS Systems in 2010 and Vivisimo last April.

Big data is an increasing focus for IBM. Last October, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company expanded its big data offerings with Hadoop-based software for industry-specific data analysis tasks.

StoredIQ software provides scalable analysis and governance of disparate and distributed email as well as file shares and collaboration sites, according to the company, and lets users discover, analyze, monitor, retain, collect, de-duplicate and dispose of data.

"Together, IBM and StoredIQ can empower organizations to more efficiently use and govern their unstructured data to increase its value and eliminate unnecessary cost and risk," StoredIQ CEO Phil Myers said in a statement. "IBM and StoredIQ are longstanding partners with existing integration between IBM's Information Lifecycle Governance suite and StoredIQ's active data management software."

PUBLISHED DEC. 19, 2012