InterSystems

This article is about a database software company. For the microcomputer manufacturer from New York, see Ithaca InterSystems.

InterSystems Corporation is a privately held vendor of software systems and technology for high-performance database management, rapid application development, integration, and healthcare information systems. The vendor's products include InterSystems IRIS Data Platform, Caché Database Management System, the InterSystems Ensemble^[1] integration platform, the HealthShare healthcare informatics platform and TrakCare^[2] healthcare information system,^[3] which is sold outside the United States.

InterSystems Corporation

Company type	Private
Industry	software
Founded	1978
Founder	Phillip (Terry) Ragon
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts
Key people	Phillip (Terry) Ragon, Founder and CEO
Products	InterSystems IRIS InterSystems IRIS for Health Caché Ensemble DeepSee HealthShare TrakCare GlobalsDB
Revenue	$1 billion+ (USD) (FY2024)
Website	www.InterSystems.com

InterSystems is based in Boston, Massachusetts.^[4] The company's revenue was $727 million in 2019.

History

InterSystems was founded in 1978 by Phillip T. (Terry) Ragon, its current CEO.^[5] The firm was one of the vendors of M-technology (aka MUMPS) systems, with a product called ISM-11 (an DSM-11 clone) for the DEC PDP-11 .^[6] Over the years, it acquired several other MUMPS implementations: DTM from Data Tree (1993); DSM from Digital (1995);^[7] and MSM from Micronetics (1998); making InterSystems the dominant M technology vendor.^{[citation needed]}

The firm eventually started combining features from these products into one they called OpenM, then consolidated the technologies into a product, Caché, in 1997.^[8] At that time they stopped new development for all of their legacy M-based products (although the company still supports existing customers). They launched Ensemble, an integration platform, in 2003^[9] and HealthShare, a scalable health informatics platform, in 2006.^[10] In 2007, InterSystems purchased TrakHealth,^[8] an Australian vendor of TrakCare, a modular healthcare information system based on InterSystems technology. In May 2011, the firm launched Globals as a free database based on the multi-dimensional array storage technology used in Caché.^[11] In September 2011, InterSystems purchased Siemens Health Services (SHS) France from its parent company, Siemens.^[12] In September 2017, InterSystems announced InterSystems IRIS Data Platform, which, the company said, combines database management capabilities together with interoperability and analytics, as well as technologies such as sharding for performance.^[13]

Microsoft dispute

On August 14, 2008, the Boston Globe reported that InterSystems was filing a lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation, another tenant in its Cambridge, Mass., headquarters, seeking to prevent Microsoft from expanding in the building. InterSystems also filed a lawsuit against building owner Equity Office Partners, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, "contending that it conspired with Microsoft to lease space that InterSystems had rights to, and sought to drive up rents in the process".^[14]

In 2010, CEO Terry Ragon led a coalition in Cambridge called Save Our Skyline to protest a city zoning change that would have allowed more signs on top of commercial buildings, partly in response to Microsoft's desire to put a sign on top of their shared building.^[15]

Both disputes were eventually settled, and Microsoft and InterSystems agreed to both put low signs only in front of the building at street level.