IBM announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire Blade Network Technologies, a company specializing in software and devices for data and transaction routing.  

Blade provides blade server and top-of-rack switches as well as software to virtualize and manage cloud computing and other workloads. It counts over half of Fortune 500 companies among its customers. 

The two companies have worked together for the last eight years or so, and have many joint clients, so the deal is not exactly out of left field. 

"BLADE will help IBM better integrate networks with its systems, optimizing them for workloads that require high-speed and low-latency performance such as cloud computing and business analytics. For example, faster data transport enables faster decisions important for analytics workloads," said Brian Truskowski, General Manager, IBM System Storage and Networking. "BLADE will increase IBM's System Networking development, sales, support, skills and awareness and help IBM build smarter systems that are optimized for client requirements."

"BLADE views this as a great opportunity to continue working with the ecosystem of technology providers that have helped make our company successful while allowing our technology to become a more central part of the data center," said Vikram Mehta, CEO of BLADE. "Our very talented and hard working people are focused on building innovative system networking solutions, making BLADE an ideal fit to help IBM execute on its strategy to build smarter systems that deliver more value to clients around the world."

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.