It’s not a secret that IT automation is going to play a fundamental role in tomorrow’s virtual data centers.
The VMware’s investments in this space (the acquisition of Akimbi in 2006 and Dunes Technologies in 2007, the launch of LabManager, Stage Manager and Lifecycle Manager) are a confirmation of this.
Therefore the BMC acquisition of BladeLogic for $800 million is particularly important, considering that both companies have a main role in the IT automation market.
At this point BMC, never been a major player in the virtualization scene so far, has the unique possiblity to become a leader for next generation virtual infrastructures. It will depends on how tightly the company will be able to integrate the automation framework with existing hypervisors.
Depeding on the long-term strategy, it’s not even excluded that BMC may want to further invest in the virtualization market and buy a hypervisor or a cross-hypervisor management platform.