Ruth Breu

More and more companies are moving their software systems to the cloud. The “living models” of Txture, a spin-off from the University of Innsbruck, help facilitate this complex process. In the course of FWF projects, computer scientist Ruth Breu was able to dive into the development of “digital maps for IT systems” early on. Drawing on this expertise, she co-founded the spin-off Txture, which was eventually acquired by IBM. This consolidation also benefits Innsbruck as an IT location: Txtures’ team of globally active specialists with strong ties to the University of Innsbruck is set to grow.

When Google Maps became a household name in the late 2000s, IT expert Ruth Breu had an idea: The flexible online maps fundamentally changed how people planned trips and offered a copious amount of data and a clear overview of transport infrastructure and mobility options. Wouldn’t it be great for a company to have the same kind of comprehensive overview of its IT systems?

A company’s software infrastructure usually grows over a long period of time. This is why in many places, open-source applications are used in addition to proprietary, specialized software programs, and interfaces specifically developed for the company’s needs are operated next to generic office applications. “My idea was to create a management system that could hold all the information so that a whole IT landscape could be planned in a safe, efficient, and sustainable way,” the scientist recounts.

Today, Ruth Breu serves as the Dean of the University of Innsbruck’s Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics and is the scientific head of the Digital Innovation Hub West, an organization that fosters knowledge transfer between basic research at universities and product development in companies. Implementing scientific results in practice has also been part of her personal research journey.

Projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) provided the foundation for Ruth Breu and her two co-founders Matthias Farwick and Thomas Trojer to get their company Txture off the ground in 2017. The results of basic research conducted at university were put to use in a specifically developed product: the proprietary software platform is particularly suitable for large corporations that wish to migrate their IT environment to the cloud. In 2025, eight years after the foundation, the team celebrated a successful exit: the IT giant IBM acquired Txture, promising further investments in the Innsbruck-based company.

Strengthening Innsbruck as an IT location

Between its establishment and the time it was sold, Txture’s team grew to 20 staff members. “IBM is fully committed to keeping and even expanding the Innsbruck location,” Farwick said in an interview with the Austrian tech platform Trending Topics. Tyrol will become the site of a new research hub within the global IBM network, offering new jobs and opportunities for development in the field of cloud transformation and artificial intelligence.

In a nutshell

In the framework of a project funded by the FWF, computer science expert Ruth Breu from the University of Innsbruck and her team developed a system that provides clear and dynamic overviews of extremely complex structures based on so-called graphs. It depicts the numerous interdependencies between many thousands of nodes. As a “living model,” it also continuously updates itself based on automated input. The technology, originally developed for IT landscapes, became the core element of the university spin-off Txture. Txture’s platform can be used to efficiently and sustainably plan corporate IT systems, particularly supporting migration to cloud environments. The acquisition by IBM has made the technology a core tool in the tech giant’s consulting business.

Porträt Ruth Breu — Computer scientist Ruth Breu and her team have developed innovative technology that dynamically visualizes complex IT structures; today, the system is used by IBM via the spin-off Txture. © Elias Walder/IFI

Abbildung einer IT-Landkarte — This technology makes IT systems more sustainable and efficient. © Ruth Breu

“My idea was to create a management system that could hold all the information so that a whole IT landscape could be planned in a safe, efficient, and sustainable way.”

The business community in Tyrol is definitely thrilled. Standortagentur Tirol, the province’s business promotion agency, for one is convinced that this move will make “Tyrol an even more attractive location for international IT and digitalization firms.” Manfred Lechner, the University of Innsbruck’s Vice-Rector for Infrastructure, agrees: “IBM’s acquisition of Txture has helped set up a team of IBM developers in Innsbruck who closely cooperate with headquarters in the US and other companies around the world. I have no doubt that this will result in a wealth of new opportunities for the University of Innsbruck and the entire business location.”

When, 15 years ago, Breu started to develop new concepts and IT systems based on her idea, this outcome was anything but clear. “My original vision was a far cry from anything that could be implemented in practice,” says Breu, who has held a chair at the University of Innsbruck’s Department of Computer Science, where she leads the Quality Engineering research group, already since 2002. Subsequent projects and collaborations with business partners eventually moved things along.

High quality despite tight deadlines

In general, Breu’s research group works on the question of how to optimally balance work effort with time and staff expenditure in software projects to achieve the required quality level. “The rapid advances in IT today call for the development of new quality-assurance methods,” Breu explains. “Automation plays an important part in this. For example, we look into how tests of chatbot applications can be automated with the help of AI-based systems.”

But quality assurance does not stop at testing individual programs. The system resulting from Breu’s original idea increases the stability and security of entire IT landscapes. The researchers were acutely aware of the demand for such a system. “You have to have a good grasp of the complex business reality in IT to find the topics that are really interesting,” the computer scientist says. It’s important to Breu that her team members gain first-hand experience of entrepreneurial practice. To this end, she invites business representatives to join her projects as cooperation partners. The long-standing collaboration with Infineon to explore the challenges of large IT management processes is but one example.

Short bio

Ruth Breu was appointed Dean of the University of Innsbruck’s Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics in 2024. She is also the scientific head of the Digital Innovation Hub West, which supports the knowledge exchange between basic research at universities and SMEs. Breu studied computer science at the University of Passau, where she obtained a doctoral degree in 1991. Following her habilitation at the Technical University of Munich, she became a professor at the University of Innsbruck’s Department of Computer Science in 2002, where she has since headed the Quality Engineering research group. She also served as department head from 2013 to 2024. From 2011 to 2020, she was a member of the FWF’s Scientific Board, where she contributed to shaping basic research in Austria. In 2017, Breu founded the university spin-off Txture together with Matthias Farwick and Thomas Trojer, which was acquired by IBM Consulting in 2025.

“The rapid advances in IT today call for the development of new quality-assurance methods.”

Txture co-founders Matthias Farwick and Thomas Trojer on a balcony with plants in the background — Basic research funded by the FWF provided the foundation for Ruth Breu and her two co-founders Matthias Farwick and Thomas Trojer (from left) to build their company Txture on in 2017. © IBM

Core technology out of FWF project

In the course of many years of IT development, new technological building blocks for a novel kind of IT management system emerged. From 2016, Breu was involved in the FWF project “Situation-Aware IT Asset Management,” in which the basic structure to depict complex system environments to visualize the interdependency of individual components in so-called graphs was created – a central element of the IT maps was born.

“The visualizations can encompass more than 10,000 nodes, which are connected to each other to describe their relationships,” Breu explains. “What happens when a server is down? Which interfaces do you need to add when you get a new accounting system? Connected data can provide answers to all of these questions.” As a “living model,” the platform keeps itself up to date by continuously accessing information. It can also be used to simulate restructuring processes in the system environment.

In 2017, Breu had an important breakthrough: “The possibility of a spin-off had always been on my mind. But I knew that everything had to be in place for that,” Breu remembers. “It had become clear that we would be able to develop the technology and that there was a market for it. And my postdocs were willing to personally accept the risks and drive the project forward.” That year, the IT specialist founded the company together with Farwick and Trojer. Only two years later, in 2019, the team of founders was awarded the Austrian PHÖNIX founders’ award for the innovative force of their project.

“Today, we are working on depicting modern buildings as digital twins.”

More efficient and sustainable IT systems

Since its foundation, Txture has helped more than 100 customers increase the efficiency and sustainability of their systems. “Reducing CO2 emissions and saving energy through optimized IT management were among our goals when developing the system,” Breu says. The most frequent use case today is IT modernization in large corporations, which often involves setting up a proprietary cloud infrastructure.

“As we were growing Txture, however, we often found ourselves unsure about our strategic direction as a start-up offering a software product primarily aimed at large corporations,” Breu remembers. “We finally decided to rely on consulting firms – no company transforms its IT landscape without hiring a consultant first.” IBM soon became a cooperation partner. “And in 2023, things got really exciting. Other IT giants also expressed interest in the system – and there was a risk that they would develop their own solutions that were similar to ours,” she says.

In the end, IBM provided the opportunity for the founders’ exit. Once her two postdocs went to work for Txture, Breu herself turned to a new topic to continue to work on the “living models” principle: “The digital twin, which is a virtual image of real, physical infrastructure, has become a buzzword in current IT research, for instance when it comes to production facilities or energy grids,” the scientist explains. “Today, we are working on depicting modern buildings as digital twins.” Their dimensions, building services, and digitalization can make buildings extremely complex. Virtual models offer a new way of centrally monitoring and operating them. Could this be the next spin-off? “I won’t rule it out,” Breu says. “But only if everything falls into place again.”