IBM is a globally integrated enterprise operating in 170 countries. IBM's R&D history in Israel began in 1972 when Professor Josef Raviv established the IBM Israel Scientific Center in the Technion's Computer Science Building in Haifa. As of 2023, over 3000 individuals work at IBM R&D locations across Israel, including Haifa, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Rehovot, and the Jerusalem Technology Park.[1]
IBM Haifa Research Laboratory (HRL) is located in Haifa, Israel. It is an IBM R&D Lab in Israel. It handles projects in the spheres of cloud computing,[2] healthcare and life sciences, verification technologies,[3] [4] multimedia, event processing,[5] information retrieval,[6] programming environments,[7] business transformation, and optimization technologies.[8] HRL is the biggest IBM research center outside the US.[9]
Established back in 1972 as the IBM Israel Scientific Center, the IBM Haifa Research Lab has grown from three researchers to over five hundred employees, including regular staff members and many students. The IBM Haifa Research Lab is located in a custom-built complex adjacent to the Haifa University campus, with branches in Haifa and Tel Aviv. Current projects include healthcare, cloud computing, formal and simulation-based verification technologies, programming environments, chip design, storage systems, information retrieval, collaboration, and much more.
At the IBM Haifa Research Lab, twenty-five percent of the technical staff have doctoral degrees in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or related fields. Employees are actively involved in teaching at Israeli higher education institutions such as the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and supervising post-graduate theses. Many employees have received IBM awards for achievements and excellence.
STG incorporates the former Haifa Development Lab and develops advanced technologies for IBM's Systems and Technology Group. The STG Lab in Israel is involved in three major activities: storage technology, de-duplication software, and chip design. Working closely with the Israeli hi-tech community and recent IBM acquisitions in Israel, the STG Lab serves as a focal point for building a storage ecosystem in Israel. The lab also works closely with the XIV team in IBM. Its three main departments are Hardware Development, Storage Systems Development, and Diligent Technologies.
ILSL develops software for real-time collaboration http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/ilsl/rtc.shtml, content discovery http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/ilsl/cde.shtml and text analytics, metadata management http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/ilsl/metadata.shtml, application security http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/ilsl/as.shtml, and SOA http://www.haifa.ibm.com/ilsl/soa.shtml. The teams work closely with the Lotus, Information Management, Rational, and WebSphere brands in IBM's Software Group.
See also: List of mergers and acquisitions by IBM. In recent years IBM acquired over a dozen Israeli technology companies, which have been subsequently incorporate into IBM R&D Labs in Israel, they include:
| Company | Description | Acquisition Date | Value (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubique[10] | Developer of instant messaging and collaboration products, its functions integrated into IBM Lotus Sametime product | May 19, 1998 | |
| iPhrase Systems[11] | US-based iPhrase had an R&D center in Jerusalem with 30 employees. The US company acquired its activity in Israel when it merged with Banter Systems, a start-up that developed software for automated classification of texts. | November 1, 2005 | |
| Unicorn Solutions[12] | Developer of software for metadata management, The company’s product provides metadata repository, ontology modeling, semantic mapping, Active Design services, and federated business querying services. | May 5, 2006 | $10 million |
| WatchFire[13] | July 20, 2007 | ||
| I-Logix[14] | April 3, 2008 | ||
| XIV[15] | January 2, 2008 | ||
| FileX[16] [17] | Disk-based backup and recovery solutions | April 10, 2008 | |
| Diligent Technologies[18] | Data De-duplication | April 18, 2008 | $200 million |
| Guardium[19] | Provider of real-time database security and monitoring solutions to safeguard enterprise data and address regulatory compliance requirements. | November 30, 2009 | $225 million |
| Storwize[20] | July 29, 2010 | $140 million | |
| Worklight[21] | Mobile application development platform | January 31, 2012 | $70 million |
| CSL International[22] | virtualization management technology for IBM's zEnterprise system | July 9, 2013 | $10 million |
| Trusteer[23] | Endpoint cybercrime prevention | September 3, 2013 | $630 million |
| EZSource[24] | Application discovery and dashboard visualization | June 1, 2016 | Not disclosed |