Top Trends in eDiscovery #8: Continuing Consolidation

Some analysts are “predicting” widespread eDiscovery consolidation, to which I answer: no one needs a crystal ball to know that. It’s happening already. Over the next couple of years we will see the majority of consolidations as large storage and server companies eat up... I mean, thoughtfully acquire... smaller eDiscovery outfits.

This is not to say that these companies will necessarily do it well. I still don’t know what Iron Mountain was thinking when it released Mimosa and Stratify to Autonomy so soon, nor how HP intends to absorb Autonomy now. And Symantec and Clearwell? Their cultures may be friendly but their product lines and customers are very, very different. Having an API to Clearwell in Enterprise Vault does not a combined product line make. Also, with cloud and social media concerns growing – not to mention growing data of every type – the big guys will have to scramble to keep their acquired eDiscovery product sets current with marketplace needs.

Our take: Acquisitions and consolidation are a fact of life in a maturing market. I do not have a problem with storage and server companies acquiring eDiscovery vendors but there has to be a plan for efficiently incorporating them into existing and future product portfolios. Not to pick on Symantec, but they will never be an “eDiscovery company” like Clearwell was. What they can be is a storage management company serving data-intensive business processes like litigation eDiscovery and compliance. Now, that’s useful.
Vendors we are following: Symantec, HP, IBM, EMC, Oracle, Dell