Kainos, an IT consulting company, today announced that it has selected Autonomy (News - Alert) as its preferred partner for information processing and Information Risk Management.

Autonomy Meridio is a long-standing Kainos partner and the two companies have collaborated in the past on projects with the UK Audit Commission, Havant Council and Northern Ireland’s Eastern Health and Social Services Board.

Prompted by what Kainos officials call “the huge market opportunity presented by the staggering growth in unstructured information, stringent regulation, and highly publicized internal fraud cases,” Kainos chose to expand the range of Autonomy technologies it offers.

Kainos will create an Autonomy “center of excellence” specializing in Autonomy’s high-end information processing capabilities and Autonomy Zantaz Proactive IRM technology, Kainos officials say, to deliver “intelligent information governance products to its customer base.”

Kainos was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Belfast with offices in Dublin, London and Gdansk.

In February, Kainos announced that it has extended its Microsoft (News - Alert) Gold Partnership with the addition of the Microsoft competency for Custom Development Solutions.

Kainos achieved Gold Certification in 2005. Solution Competencies are the cornerstone of Microsoft’s Partner Program, as they allow partners to define their areas of expertise in specific products that reflect their business model. Kainos now holds Solution Competencies for Information Worker, ISV/Software Solutions, Network Infrastructure and Custom Development Solutions.

Brendan Mooney, Managing Director at Kainos, called the partnership a “win-win partnership.”

Colin Cassidy, Partner Development Manager, Microsoft Ireland said Kainos’ Gold Partner certification makes them “one of only a handful of Irish companies to have achieved this partnership status.”