Dell announced Thursday that it is purchasing Scalent, a provider of server-virtualization management software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Dell plans to roll Scalent's infrastructure management software into its own AIM (Advanced Infrastructure Manager) data center software package.
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Scalent's Infrastructure Manager software package provides the ability to manage both physical and virtual servers without making any physical changes to the network. It could work with both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors. The company pitched its software for managing rapid and dynamic deployments of servers, and also as a disaster recovery tool.
Like Scalent's software, Dell's AIM allows an administrator to allocate compute, storage, and virtual application workloads from a single console.
The computer giant in Round Rock, Texas, is no stranger to Scalent's software. In September 2009, Scalent signed an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement with Dell, for Dell to offer Scalent's Infrastructure Manager software under its own name.
Dell expects to complete the purchase of Scalent, a privately held company, by the end of this month.
Scalent, founded in 2003, is based in Palo Alto, California. In addition to selling its software through Dell, the company has served as an OEM provider to EMC and Unisys.
Joab Jackson covers enterpise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's email address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com