SpringSource, now a division VMware, plans to fully support and integrate GemStone’s product line, including GemFire Enterprise, GemFire SQLFabric and GemStone/S, into its portfolio, according to the company release.
The move is the latest in a series of ambitious plays by the virtualization provider to establish itself as a major platform vendor, says Al Hilwa, program director of applications development software for market research firm IDC.
According to Hilwa, VMWare acquired SpringSource for the same purpose last year and has proceeded to make consistent acquisitions – most recently, enterprise messaging provider Rabbit Technologies – to establish a full platform. And, data management is a crucial component for meeting that goal.
“SpringSource under VMware is clearly in an aggressive mode of assembling a stack to build out a full offering and be a significant player in the cloud. Data management is key to this stack,” says Hilwa. “Every application has to solve the issue of how to store its data of record and how to scale it. Owning this part of the stack will prove essential for SpringSource.”
GemStone brings key functionality to SpringSource in the form of non-relational data management. Relational capabilities are central to high-scale cloud applications running on the Internet today, says Hilwa. They are also important to bringing existing or legacy applications into the cloud.
Incorporating the new products will put VMware in a position to meet emerging infrastructure requirements for cloud-centric applications, according to John Barr, analyst at The 451 Group. “Modern, cloud-centric applications will be powered by a lightweight application platform, scalable data platform and virtualized infrastructure as a service, and SpringSource is building out a portfolio to address all of those requirements.”
Adrienne Baker is associate editor at Information Management. She can be reached at adrienne.baker@sourcemedia.com.
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