VMware Acquires Apteligent, Extends Its Cloud, End User Computing Capabilities With Mobile App Management

VMware on Monday said it has acquired Apteligent, a provider of mobile application performance and monitoring technology, and plans to roll it into VMware's cloud and end user management business.

Apteligent brings VMware a lot of intellectual property related to how applications operate in mobile environments, said Shekar Ayyar, executive vice president of strategy and corporate development and the general manager of VMware's Telco Group.

"We're looking to make manageability across the cloud and end-user computing more intelligent," Ayyar told CRN. "We're looking for batter manageability across the entire VMware management platform."

[Related: Pat Gelsinger: VMware Opens Up Tech Partners To Expand Cloud Capabilities]

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Apteligent's technology automatically captures and interprets application data to provide user insights and information to help provide mobile business performance, according to Apteligent. It captures real-time event data from user flows in an application, tracks key metrics, and leverages mobile ecosystem data points to help customers improve the applications.

Apteligent is the latest in a string of acquisitions by VMware aimed at creating a unified platform for automating and managing applications in cloud, virtualized, and mobile environments, Ayyar said.

This started in 2011 with VMware's acquisition of Integrien, a developer of real-time data center performance analytics and management software that helps customers manage application and infrastructure performance. Integrien became the base on which VMware developed its vRealize Operations, or vRO, application, Ayyar said.

A year later, VMware acquired DynamicOps, which brought it management software to handle provisioning of apps and services across heterogeneous cloud infrastructure. DynamicOps eventually became vRealize or vRA, he said.

That year, VMware also acquired Log Insight, an analytics and log management product developed by Pattern Insight, which provided log management to the vRealize Suite, Ayyar said.

VMware in 2016 acquired Arkin, a startup developer of software that lets organizations keep track of networking traffic flows and security issues in virtualized and physical environments. That technology became VMware's vRealize network Insight, or vRNI.

Earlier this year VMware acquired Wavefront, a developer of microservices and DevOps technology as part of its cross-cloud services offensive with AWS.

"Wavefront provides fast ingesting of real-time metrics," Ayyar said. "As customers look at new apps in a container environment, they don't have the luxury of several months or years of development time."

The acquisitions of Integrien, DynamicOps, Log Insight, and Wavefront together gave VMware a management infrastructure for the server side of IT, Ayyar said.

On the client side, VMware developed its own architecture for managing desktop environments and virtual desktop infrastructures, Ayyar said.

The management buildup continued in 2014 with VMware's acquisition of AirWatch, which brought it mobile device and application management along with mobile content management solutions for the enterprise, Ayyar said.

"And now Apteligent adds management of applications in mobile environments," he said.

Apteligent does have some competition, including Mobile Iron, Microsoft, and Citrix, who are looking at how to add mobile application management to their platforms, Ayyar said. However, Apteligent was one of the few standalone developers of the technology, making it attractive to VMware.

Apteligent has been in the market for only about five years, and so is a relative startup with no OEM or other deals that might be impacted by VMware's acquisition, according to Ayyar.