IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is set to buy Cloudant, a cloud specialist in database-as-a-service, as a way to expand the company's analytics portfolio. Terms of the deal are undisclosed.

The transaction comes on the heels of the information technology company's announced plan to invest up to $1 billion in cloud technology by 2015. The last major deal it did in the sector was the 2013 purchase of SoftLayer for around $2 billion.  

Avlon Ventures, CIA’s In-Q-Tel, Rackspace and Samsung Ventures invested a total of $15.1 million in Cloudant. The Boston-based company, built using a noSQL database called CouchDB, competes with IBM's database MongoDB.

The deal allows IBM to tap customers who use both cloud computing services. Clients will be able to rapidly deliver more data and applications to the marketplace, according to IBM vice president Sean Poulley.