Oracle continues spending spree with Virtual Iron buy

Virtual Iron offers a range of server virtualisation software

Oracle has added to its virtualisation product line-up with the acquisition of Virtual Iron, which specialises in virtual systems management tools for use in datacentres.

Rumours of a possible deal between the two firms first surfaced in March. Announcing the merger today, Oracle said that, when combined with its own server virtualisation product, Virtual Iron's systems will provide users with dynamic resource and capacity management, offering improved visibility and better control of facilities and enterprise software.

"Industry trends are driving demand for virtualisation as a way to reduce operating expenses, and support green IT strategies without sacrificing quality of service," said Wim Coekaerts, vice president of Linux and virtualisation engineering at Oracle.

"With the addition of Virtual Iron, Oracle expects to enable customers to more dynamically manage their server capacity, and optimise power consumption. The acquisition is consistent with Oracle's strategy to provide comprehensive enterprise software management, and will facilitate more efficient management of application service levels."

Oracle added in a letter to customers that the acquisition would have several benefits for them.

"Customers are expected to benefit from rapid application deployment, streamlined virtualisation server configuration, improved visibility and control across Oracle's enterprise software stack," the company said.

"In addition, we anticipate that the combination of Virtual Iron technology with Oracle Enterprise Manager will enable customers to be more agile in meeting application service levels for virtual environments."

Oracle also outlined advantages for its partners. "We expect that Oracle partners will benefit from working with a single vendor to address customer needs for comprehensive and dynamic resource management solutions," the vendor said.

Virtual Iron adds to Oracle's recent acquisition spree, which includes the £5.1bn purchase of Sun Microsystems.

Financial details of the Virtual Iron purchase have not been disclosed. The deal is expected to close this summer.