Diligent Technologies is a privately held storage "de-duplication" technology firm headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts with research and development located in Tel Aviv, Israel. Diligent says that it develops in-line data de-duplication software that is integrated with server and storage infrastructures to help organizations significantly reduce the amount and cost of physical storage required in data centers.

"We are pleased to become a key member of the IBM System Storage family, knowing IBM has the industry's most comprehensive vision for the future direction of storage and data-protection," says Doron Kempel, chairman and CEO of Diligent. "The combination of IBM and Diligent will deliver increased innovation and industry-focused data protection solutions."

Data de-duplication is an emerging technology that many organizations are investing in today, says IBM, and Diligent's product provides a single solution to support data protection, archive and data-retention applications, all while maintaining the integrity of the data.

The Diligent acquisition will be an important part of IBM's New Enterprise Data Center model, says the company, which helps clients improve IT efficiency and facilitates the rapid deployment of new IT services for future business growth. The new model is based on best practices for virtualization, green IT, service management and cloud computing.

"Diligent's industry-proven data de-duplication offerings are exceptionally suited for mid-range and enterprise clients," says Andy Monshaw, general manager of IBM System Storage, "uniquely combining in-line performance, scalability and data integrity and extends IBM's strong portfolio of strategic offerings that will help our clients reduce infrastructure costs, improve energy efficiency in the data center, and enable them to fully utilize their information on demand."

This is the third storage related acquisition for IBM in the past few months. In January, IBM formally announced it had acquired Israeli-based XIV to address emerging storage opportunities such as Web 2.0 applications, digital archives and digital media. Earlier this month, IBM announced its intent to acquire FilesX, a leading provider of continuous data protection software for mission-critical applications and remote offices.

IBM also recently completed a tender offer valued at approximately $845 million for the shares of Telelogic.