VMware acquires startup CloudVolumes

US scloud and virtualization software and services provider VMware has acquired startup CloudVolumes, whose technology allows companies to provide complex applications to their employees quickly and easily, Venture Beat reported.

The announcement of the acquisition came in a blog post today by CloudVolumes senior vice president and chief product officer Harry Labana.

Although Labana did not disclose terms of the deal, he said that VMware would announce more details on the deal's implications during its VMworld conference next week.

With the deal, VMware would be in a better position to articulate the value of its software for desktop virtualisation, which allows desktop experiences and legacy applications used by employees to be put together in such a manner as to make it possible to be run securely from devices other than corporate computers, even outside company offices.

This would require a desktop operating system like Windows to be run inside a virtual machine on a company server.

VMware pioneered virtualisation technology - which allows the running of multiple applications inside virtual machines on top of physical servers - more than a decade ago, which still earns the company much of its revenue.

However, VMware had also looked to expand its enterprise software offerings and enhance its portfolio.

In the recent past, publicly-traded VMware has made acquisitions to add offerings in the areas of storage and networking, as also in desktop virtualisation.

According to Kit Colbert, CTO of end-user computing at VMware, delivering apps to desktop users could be "challenging and cumbersome" because all kinds of glitches could happen, particularly in Windows environments, CRN reported.

He added in the blog post, the CloudVolumes solved these issues with "layering" technology that split a Windows instance into separate pieces, into which apps could easily and quickly be added.

CloudVolumes could work in both virtual and physical environments and according to Colbert, layers could be added on the fly to running desktops, for faster application delivery.

VMware has plans for integration of CloudVolumes' technology with its Horizon desktop virtualisation software.

"No longer does the admin need to coordinate an outage window to install an app or do an update.  Now the new or updated app can be delivered to a running, logged in desktop in a completely transparent fashion," said Colbert in the blog post.

Labana said in a separate blog post that his firm's technology obviated the need to manage apps on virtual machines.