VMware powers on with Digital Fuel

Described by The Register as a “server virtualisation juggernaut and cloud plumbing supply provider”,  VMware  is reported to be about to ‘aquihire’  the 150-strong team of Israel-based Digital Fuel.

Digital Fuel will take VMWare into IT financial management territory with tools to measure cost of infrastructures and applications across public, private and traditional on-premise environments - and even hybrid variations so businesses can be charged for their actual IT applications and resources usage.

The Digital Fuel IT suite includes cost allocation code to track capacity used and allocate who should pay for resources as they are consumed. A separate service level engine sets performance levels for IT resources and measures how well or poorly systems meet the targets.

VMware’s VP of marketing Ramin Sayar said the software can provide an external benchmark to compare cost and value of internally provided IT services.

Software and hardware vendors typically account for up to 30% of an organisation’s IT budget, he continued.

“In the Cloud era, where your company’s business processes are driven by a complex combination of in, out, and cloud sourced services, the [service leval agreements] you agree with the business are themselves dependent on those you agree with your vendors. Digital Fuel’s vendor management solution lets you compare different vendors and options to make the most cost-effective business choice,” he said.

The deal follows VMWare’s May acquisitions of Socialcast and Shavlik Technologies, two Cloud-based social collaboration developers serving small and medium-size business respectively. 

On the InvestorUprising.com site, analyst Tony Kau warned that VMWare was “on a tear” after buying EMC’s Zimbra software product technology as well as SlideRocket. Noting its price/earnings ratio of 103 and a flurry of recent share sales by company officers, he added that it was time to take a closer look at what was going on within the company, warning investors that it was “time to get off the Cloud”.

See our sister site BusinessCloud9.com for more news and analysis of the VMware phenomenon.