VMware's New Network Plan Features Wavefront Buy

VMware was already widely known throughout the field as a major figure in cloud-based network infrastructure operations as well as business mobility tools, and now it's about to become even more widely known. It recently announced plans to acquire Wavefront, a measure that will likely give VMware even more to work with than it already had.

The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, though reports note that it's likely to close sometime in the second quarter of 2017. That means the deal's got a little over two months to conclude, being as the second quarter just got started. The word notes that there shouldn't be a material impact on VMware's fiscal year 2018 operating results, which is likely good news for all concerned.

With the acquisition of Wavefront, VMware has a great potential in the network infrastructure field. While VMware has been long considered sound on this front, the Wavefront acquisition gives it one key new value: the ability to better monitor network function. Wavefront has a line of tools that offer metrics monitoring functions particularly geared toward cloud-based systems and modern applications. Drawing information from a horde of data points measuring in the millions, the end result is a better way to not only find, but also address problems.

Since Wavefront is cloud-hosted, it's in an excellent position to not only interact with all that data, but from there, perform a slate of analyses on the raw data to generate actionable insights. Plus, since the system can be scaled up to data center levels—which have some of the highest data throughput around—Wavefront's systems are useful on a variety of levels, making it a great pick for managing network infrastructure and finding where the problems are with an eye toward fixing them.

Improving network infrastructure requires information to carry out. After all, if no one knows what's wrong with the network, no one really knows how to fix it. With the right information, however, a fix can be much more forthcoming. With Wavefront tools on hand, VMware can better show off how to address a problem in the network infrastructure, then offer the tools to address it, which makes it a complete solution on all sides of the equation.

When a company can offer a complete start-to-finish solution, it becomes more likely that businesses will choose that company, not only for easier bookkeeping, but for easier maintenance. VMware has made itself a company that offers just such a solution.

Edited by Alicia Young