Software Testing in the Cloud Helps Customers Reduce Cost, Improve Quality

ARMONK, N.Y.- 04 Jan 2012: IBM today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Green Hat, a leader in software quality and testing solutions for the cloud and other environments. Financial terms were not disclosed.  

Founded in 1996, Green Hat is jointly headquartered in London, England and Wilmington, Delaware. Green Hat helps customers improve the quality of software applications by enabling developers to leverage cloud computing technologies to conduct testing on a software application prior to its delivery. Historically, to run simulation testing on a software program, a development team must construct an actual testing lab made up of both hardware and software. This time consuming and labor intensive process has become even more compounded with the short development cycle needed to compete in rapidly expanding markets such as those for smart phones and tablets. By using Green Hat’s solutions, a virtual test environment can be set up in a matter of minutes versus weeks, and for a fraction of the cost.   

According to recent industry reports, software testing represents more than 50 percent of overall development costs, and testing teams often spend upwards of 30 percent of their time managing the complexity of the test environment.1 Green Hat creates a virtual environment that simulates a wide range of IT infrastructure elements, without the constraints of hardware or software services. This continuous test environment enables developers and quality professionals to test software earlier and more frequently throughout the software development lifecycle. 

Upon the acquisition close, Green Hat will join IBM’s Rational Software business. When combined with the IBM Rational Solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management, developers and testers can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and collaboration while delivering quality software to their business. IBM and Green Hat will help customers maximize continuous integration of an application, including creating virtual protocols, message formats, services, customization and engagement with third-party software. Development teams can avoid scrap and rework and dramatically reduce costly delays while achieving greater business agility and accelerating the delivery of software applications.   

“This acquisition extends IBM’s leadership in driving business agility and software quality by changing the way enterprises can manage software development cost, test cycle time and risk,” said Kristof Kloeckner, General Manager, IBM Rational. “Together, we offer the most complete solution available today for agile software development and testing, with flexible options such as the cloud. Green Hat’s application virtualization capabilities will help our customers accelerate their delivery of business critical software.” 

“We’ve been focused on transforming our customers’ software development processes through innovative testing and quality improvements,” said Peter Cole, CEO, Green Hat. “We are looking forward to bringing Green Hat’s innovative application virtualization and continuous integration testing expertise to IBM customers who have a growing business need to better manage their complex testing environments.” 

The Green Hat software testing solutions also will be offered through IBM Global Business Services’ Application Management Services (AMS). IBM AMS provides strategy, design, implementation, testing and managed services for application virtualization to accelerate customer results. 

Green Hat is an automated testing technology leader, operating worldwide with a Global 2000 customer base. Green Hat makes automated testing simple for complex systems relying on Cloud, Web Services, messaging, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), BPM (Business Process Management), CEP (Complex Event Processing), SAP and other distributed technologies. Their diverse range of customers includes prestigious representation in financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, transportation and the energy industry.  

For more information on Green Hat: http://www.greenhat.com 

For more information on IBM Software: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational

National Institute of Standards and Technology, http://www.nist.gov/director/planning/upload/report02-3.pdf

Accelerates Advanced Intelligence for Smarter Buildings Transformation

ARMONK, N.Y.,- 14 Apr 2011: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of TRIRIGA, Inc., a privately-held company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Financial terms were not disclosed.

On March 22, IBM announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire TRIRIGA, a leading provider of facility and real estate management software solutions.

Many of the systems that constitute a building - heat, water, sewage, electricity and physical assets - are managed independently and often inefficiently.  Collecting, managing and analyzing data in buildings provides actionable insight to energy, space and facilities management.

"The acquisition of TRIRIGA will help accelerate IBM's efforts to bring intelligence in the smarter buildings market," said David Bartlett, vice president, industry solutions, IBM.  "Now, real estate and finance executives will have a comprehensive solution that can help reduce operations and energy expense by monitoring and managing their real-estate expenditures and resources."

As a leader in workplace management solutions, TRIRIGA will strengthen IBM smarter buildings solutions by adding these key functions:

Real Estate Portfolio Management, including strategic portfolio planning and lease management --TRIRIGA assists companies in their efforts to optimize building use, reduce occupancy costs and improve lease administration. TRIRIGA software helps companies evaluate future space requirements and make long term planning decisions. For example, using solutions from TRIRIGA, managers can determine future space and growth needs and choose the most financially beneficial options among lease or buy alternatives.

Capital Project Management, such as condition assessment, budgeting, construction estimating and project management -- Effectively evaluating building condition and prioritizing investments are important in maximizing a facility's lifetime value at the lowest cost.  For example, using TRIRIGA solutions, property managers can assess whether to replace a roof on a building versus replacing the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment by determining which is likely to prove a better return-on-investment and assessing trade-offs in identifying investment priorities.

Energy and Environmental Sustainability, such as monitoring utility costs and consumption, analyzing environmental investments and setting carbon management strategies -- Tracking and managing utility costs, including electricity, gas and water, is the first step companies must take in driving those costs down. Using TRIRIGA software, a company can monitor and track its carbon footprint and reduce greenhouse gases from underperforming facilities. Companies can evaluate the financial and environmental benefit of capital investment decisions focused on energy and environmental efficiency strategies, such as a building retrofit or updating to a more efficient HVAC system.

TRIRIGA will be integrated into IBM Software and IBM Global Business Services.

For more information, please visit http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/welcome/tririga

About IBM Smarter Buildings

Since launching its smarter buildings initiative in February 2010, IBM has created a portfolio of smarter buildings solutions that integrate with building automation software from across the industry.  For more information, visit: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/green_buildings/overview/index.html?re=spf