VMware Buys Cloud Monitoring Startup
via Shutterstock
One week after selling its cloud operations to a European cloud-hosting provider, VMware Inc. said it is acquiring a cloud application monitoring service provider as IT micro-services move deeper into enterprises.
Terms of VMware's (NYSE: VMW) deal to buy Wavefront, Palo Alto, Calif., were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of June.
The deal reflects VMware's efforts to expand beyond on-premise offerings as its build out what it calls "cross cloud" management services ranging from monitoring to visualization. The company said the cloud monitoring deal complements its existing on-premise tools for monitoring virtual infrastructure.
"With this acquisition, we are doubling down on cross-cloud and management, and increasing our relevance with developers and DevOps teams by providing real-time monitoring of web-scale modern applications that rely on micro-services in containers," Ajay Singh, general manager of VMware's cloud management unit, explained in a blog post.
Wavefront's cloud application monitoring service uses analytics and other metrics to stabilized enterprise applications running in the cloud. The service would be combined with VMware's Cross-Cloud Service, Wavefront CEO Pete Cittadini noted in a blog post announcing the deal.
Wavefront's service ingests, stores, visualizes and issues alerts on the performance of cloud-based applications. The service allows developers to scan real-time data streams to pinpoint performance bottlenecks as public and private cloud infrastructure handles hundreds of ephemeral micro-services delivered via application containers.
VMware's Singh asserted that the new cloud monitoring capability would, when combined with its existing vRealize platform for monitoring virtual infrastructure, provide an overall view of IT operations "from network through infrastructure to applications."
According to the web site Crunchbase, Wavefront had raised $65.5 million in three venture funding rounds, including a $52 million round last October.
After the transaction closes, Wavefront will be added to VMware's software services offerings. Meanwhile, its streaming metrics monitoring technology will be integrated with VMware's "cross-cloud" services unveiled last year.
The Wavefront acquisition follows last week's sale of VMware's cloud operations to French cloud provider OVH. That deal also is expected to closed by the end of this quarter, at which time OVH said it would operate the service as "vCloud Air Powered by OVH," a platform based on VMware's hybrid cloud technology.
The rapid-fire deals also reflect VMware's hybrid cloud strategy that seeks to provide a common operating environment for private and public clouds. Accompanying software services are designed to manage and secure applications running across clouds. They also address the growing production shift toward micro-services delivered via application containers.
VMware is betting that companies running micro-services on hybrid cloud infrastructure will seek to leverage emerging tools such as real-time analytics to monitor the performance of container-based applications while tracking the status of distributed systems.
