VERITAS to Acquire Application Virtualization Firm

VERITAS Software on Wednesday moved to acquire application virtualization concern Ejascent for $59 million in cash to bolster its utility computing strategy to better compete with IBM, HP and EMC.

Application virtualization software, such as Ejasent’s core UpScale product, allows IT employees to move an application from one server to another without disrupting or terminating the application. UpScale takes a snapshot of an application, preserves its settings and data and transfers it to a different server in near real time.

Ejasent also makes usage-based metering and billing software, called MicroMeasure. The product gauges physical and abstract data center assets, including servers, storage and application transactions by specific users and departments. VERITAS plans to integrate MicroMeasure software into the VERITAS application service level management product, CommandCentral
Service.

Such on-the-fly capabilities are a hallmark of utility computing strategies, which provide customers with computing resources on-demand. Such services are often heavily automated and aim to help companies save money on infrastructure and personnel.

The announcement comes slightly over a year after VERITAS trumpeted its move into the increasingly competitive utility, or on-demand computing space, where systems vendors such as IBM and HP rule the roost. EMC recently entered the fray by moving to acquire server virtualization provider VMware.

In December 2002, VERITAS bid to buy
application performance management player Precise Software Solutions and server provisioning outfit Jareva Technologies for a combined $599 in stock and cash.

The Mountain View, Calif. company, known for years as a major storage software provider, has since absorbed the companies’ technologies into its bloodstream and hinted at other acquisitions at a media event this past summer.

Ejasent seems to fit the bill.

VERITAS expects to deliver UpScale and MicroMeasure software in the second quarter. UpScale will be available initially on Solaris, with a Linux version set for release in early 2005. MicroMeasure runs on Solaris, Windows, Linux and HP-UX.

Should the deal close this month as expected, Ejasent and its 21 engineers will become part of VERITAS’ High Availability/Clustering group.