Figuring out cost$-$effective ways to acquire, process, store, retrieve, and communicate useful information has led to the vastly expanding and innovative field of information technology. The Hewlett$-$Packard Corporation $($HP$)$ is one of the world's largest information technology companies and often acquires other companies in its mission to be the industry leader in this field. Here is an example:

$.$Hewlett$-$Packard acquired the data management company Vertica in $2011.$ With the purchase of Vertica, HP was able to offer its customers the ability to immediately extract meaningful information from large and complex data sets.

Hewlett$-$Packard's investment in this technology is most likely an attempt to impact the $$ costs of data management.