Progress acquires Persistence Software for $16m to boost growth of ObjectStore

Progress Software is set to acquire Persistence Software, the technology and market leader in distributed data access and caching software, in a deal worth $16 million.

Persistence will become part of ObjectStore, a Progress operating company that provides products for real-time data management. The move will strengthen ObjectStore`s real-time data services offering.

"ObjectStore has already established a significant market position in enabling real-time data services, and this acquisition is another step in accelerating the company`s growth and market leadership," says Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software South Africa.

"Real-time performance is a critical factor in more and more applications as customers implement the `real-time enterprise`. The addition of Persistence will enhance ObjectStore`s ability to deliver open, scalable data caching solutions that simplify the job of architecting performant and scalable data access and allow software developers to concentrate on their application requirements."

Persistence offers a suite of data caching products designed to enable high-volume, high-performance applications using standard relational databases. Persistence EdgeXtend provides a distributed "data services" layer that simplifies and accelerates data access. Proven in customer deployments among many companies in the Global 2000 (including Citicorp, JPMorganChase, FedEx and Reuters), the company`s technology strength is exemplified by a significant portfolio of patents in the areas of object-relational mapping and data caching.

"Both ObjectStore and Persistence help businesses make decisions while they still matter - in real-time and based on up-to-the-second information," Parry says. "EdgeXtend`s data services products provide a real-time view of an organisation`s existing data assets via a flexible, service-oriented architecture (SOA). EdgeXtend`s flexible and open object-relational mapping modelling tools and support of C++, Java, and C# languages will be leveraged by ObjectStore immediately."

To maximise the opportunities made available with this acquisition, ObjectStore plans to organise its operations around three complementary lines of business, all of which focus on delivering real-time data service capabilities:

1) Distributed data caching, whose products will be those acquired via this transaction and renamed ObjectStore EdgeXtend;

2) Event processing, whose products include ObjectStore Event Engine; and

3) Object data management, whose products include the industry`s leading object database, ObjectStore.

To help drive execution of this strategy, Chris Keene of Persistence will assume leadership of the ObjectStore distributed data caching line of business.

"Progress brings the critical mass of resources and technology needed to extend the leadership of our EdgeXtend product family in the market for data access and caching," says Keene, CEO of Persistence. "As part of ObjectStore`s real-time data services suite, we can deliver unparalleled performance and scalability."

ObjectStore plans to enhance EdgeXtend with functionality currently available in the patented Cache-Forward Architecture of ObjectCache. "Data access is a critical performance factor for modern distributed applications. Data caching should be front and centre in the minds of system designers concerned about performance," says Keene. "Persistence`s strengths in modelling tools and object-relational mapping should pay real dividends for ObjectStore. And the combination of our products and those from ObjectStore will be backed by the strengths of Progress as a software industry leader."

ObjectStore and Persistence share a number of common markets, with many blue-chip customers in financial services, logistics, travel, government and other sectors that demand scalable architectures that deliver large volumes of data to mission-critical applications in real-time.