IBM has announced the acquisition of Encentuate, a privately held provider of identity and access management software.

Encentuate offers enterprise single sign-on technologies and integration of strong authentication. IBM will integrate the firm into its Tivoli division.

"IBM has made a strategic decision to acquire Encentuate because customers are increasingly seeking a complete identity and access management solution with IBM quality and support," said Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Tivoli software.

A February 2008 Forrester research report found that the identity and access "management opportunity" will grow from $2.6bn in 2006 to more than $12.3bn in 2014.

IBM also announced the forming of the IBM Security Software Laboratory in Singapore. The firm said that the new lab will harness Encentuate's Singapore development team to better serve clients in Asia and around the world.

Financial terms of the Encentuate deal were not disclosed.