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Oracle to acquire virtualization provider Virtual Iron

Bridget Botelho, News Writer
Oracle has officially acquired virtualization software provider Virtual Iron Software for an undisclosed sum, the company reported on Wednesday.

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In March SearchServerVirtualization.com broke the story on Oracle Corp.'s intent to acquire Virtual Iron Software.

Virtual Iron claims to have about 2,000 small and medium-sized business customers and sold itself as the low-cost alternative to VMware. Though Virtual Iron has but a small slice of the virtualization market (it has less than 2% of market share), it is still "bigger than Oracle in virtualization," said Illuminata Inc. analyst Gordon Haff.

Oracle seeks improved VM management
Oracle's interest in the small, Lowell, Mass.-based virtualization software company likely stems from a need for better management capabilities for its Xen-based hypervisor, Oracle VM. Virtual Iron is also Xen-based and offers management features such as LivePower to measure and control server power consumption.

Oracle will combine Virtual Iron technology with Oracle VM to give its customers complete, full stack management capabilities for virtual and physical systems, the company said. With Virtual Iron management features for Oracle VM, users will have better capacity utilization and virtual server configuration tools and improved visibility and control of enterprise software, according to Oracle's FAQ page.

Oracle is also in the process of acquiring Sun Microsystems Inc., including its open source virtualization software, giving the company an even greater number of virtualization technologies to compete in that growing market, Haff said.

The Oracle/Virtual Iron transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be finalized this summer. Until the deal concludes, each company will continue to operate independently.

Virtual Iron employees are expected to join Oracle and bring their expertise in operating systems and virtualization to Oracle.

Let us know what you think about the story; email Bridget Botelho, News Writer.


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