Watch4net provides infrastructure performance software and services for networks, data centers and cloud deployments. Watch4net’s APG performance and SLA management software is already integrated with EMC’s IT Operations Intelligence Suite as part of a seven-year partnership.
With the intentions of expanding its own offerings for availability management and system monitoring and predictions, EMC stated in a release on the deal that it would continue to offer Watch4net’s performance management capabilities through this suite. EMC SVP and General Manager Jay Mastaj said in a news release on the deal that Watch4net’s virtual offerings are of particular interest to EMC as it moves expands its cloud and as-a-service portfolio.
“Regardless of where customers are along their journey to cloud computing, insight into every aspect of IT performance and the ability to manage it without growing staff and with increasing granularity, are no longer optional,” said Mastaj.
Watch4net is based in Montreal and counts more than 100 corporations as clients, including ING and Hilton hotels. Its team and CEO Michel Foix will report to EMC’s Infrastructure Management Group.
Jim Frey, managing director at Enterprise Management Associates, says the acquisition continues EMC’s shift beyond “reactive” infrastructure management to approaches that align traditional availability monitoring with performance management. Frey calls the deal a “small but important” step for EMC’s in-house delivery of higher level solutions in areas like content management, the cloud and advanced analytics.
“While partnering is a great way to get there in the short term, over time EMC needs to own the IP around performance monitoring so that it can compete effectively with the likes of CA, HP, and IBM all of whom have already done the same to varying degrees,” says Frey.
Further financial details of the deal were not disclosed. It was the second deal announced by EMC in a little over a week, as the Massachusetts-based IT services and software vendor acquired cloud file management provider Syncplicity on May 22.
Justin Kern is senior editor at Information Management and can be reached at justin.kern@sourcemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @IMJustinKern.
