Dell Acquires Cloud Management Software and Services Vendor Enstratius

Dell is beefing up its enterprise cloud management capabilities with the acquisition of Enstratius, a vendor specializing in enterprise cloud management software and services for delivering single and multi-cloud management capabilities.

Enstratius is a five-year-old company that has created a bit of a buzz because of its cloud platform agnostic approach to cloud management. The company’s technology currently supports more than 20 public and private cloud platforms, including OpenStack, VMware, Rackspace, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Windows Azure, as well as several others. That’s most of the key cloud platforms on the market.

Cloud management has become increasingly important as more businesses adopt cloud services — and more specifically, multiple cloud services. It’s a complex task, and so many vendors have been trying to simplify management for partners and the end-customer.

In this case, Dell has a couple of interesting business possibilities. As Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told Talkin’ Cloud, Dell’s acquisition of Enstratius “appears to be a well-considered deal that should pay off for Dell both immediately and in the long term.”

Since Enstratius is platform agnostic in its management approach, Dell has a couple of options ahead of it. King said Dell could use Enstratius as a standalone solution for managing the various cloud platforms on the market, or it could be used to enhance Dell’s various offerings, such as the cloud infrastructures sytems offered by its Data Center Solutions group.

“As enterprises increase their use of public, private and hybrid clouds, the need for controls, security, governance and automation becomes more critical,” said Tom Kendra, vice president and general manager of systems management at Dell Software, in a prepared statement.

According to Dell, cloud management is a “key strategic priority” considering the rapid adoption of cloud-based applications and the variety of cloud deployment models. Additionally, the company noted in its announcement that the Enstratius acquisition is complementary to its recent acquisition of Gale Technologies (now Active System Manager), another cloud management-focused vendor.