IBM Corp., has acquired Mountain View, Calif-based Cast Iron Systems Inc. to bolster its cloud product in anticipation for a massive explosion in cloud computing market which it says is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 28 percent from $47 billion in 2008 to $126 billion by 2012.

Cast Iron ‘s offerings focus on integration tools between on-premise apps and externally hosted applications by a cloud provider.

With the rise in SaaS (Software as a Service) and web based services the past few years, the company was able to find its niche as a cheaper middleware alternative to similar wares from bigger names.

Even as most enterprises seek to take advantage of the scalability and cost effectiveness of cloud models, security remains a major concern. It is therefore not surprising that companies are tending towards hybrids, alternating private and public clouds depending on the nature of the mission.

This of course has become the selling pitch for major cloud vendors like VMware and HP and has intensified the quest for integration facilitators for distributed data loads. Cast Iron is a perfect example of a company that has benefitted from being in the right technology at the right time. Their product no doubt will make a seamless fit into IBM's hybrid cloud deployments.

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