VMware bolstering mobile device management tools with Immidio buy
VMware has acquired Immidio, a private software company specializing in enterprise mobile device management options.
Founded in 2008, the Amsterdam-based business touts its BYOD approach as one that considers and values end user and IT needs equally.
But that's not where the pitch for equal treatment ends as Immidio also stresses consistent (yet personalized) digital workspace environments across virtual, physical, and cloud-based desktops.
Announced amid VMware's ongoing Partner Exchange conference in San Francisco this week, the virtualization giant picked up the Dutch startup to bolster its portfolio as it nudges enterprise customers toward the mobile cloud.
Immidio's solutions are designed to be platform-agnostic, fitting into VMware's announcements on Monday for vSphere 6, amid which VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger promised attendees, "We'll enable any application to run on any device."
Sumit Dhawan, senior vice president and general manager for desktop products and end-user computing at VMware, explained further in a blog post on Tuesday that Immidio's assets will "enable VMware to offer a comprehensive set of technologies for Workspace Environment Management."
Specifically, the Immidio Flex+ workspace virtualization platform will be blended with VMware's App Volumes real-time app delivery product (stemming from the recent acquisition of CloudVolumes) along with VMware's vRealize Operations Manager for application and end-user monitoring.
Immidio Flex+ alone counts more than 500 paying customers across more than 25 countries.
Immidio CEO Rob Huisman estimated in a separate statement that "millions of users around the world still use our former freeware products" dating back to 2009, citing at least one organization (without naming it) that uses Flex+ to manage 105,000 physical desktops.
"From day one we applied strict principles to our company (engineering) culture, product architecture and functionality,"Huisman asserted. "We did not want to compromise on the quality of our team, we wanted to stick to a simple and scalable architecture, we did not want to add complexity and we never built functionality for marketing purposes nor for customer specific requirements that would not benefit the majority of our customer base."
All things cloud covers the agenda for VMware this week. At the core of the plan is VMware's vSphere 6, the latest iteration of the server virtualization platform for cloud infrastructures, which packs more than 650 new features.
Many of these upgrades have been designed to improve scaling and availability for Hadoop workloads as well as mission-critical apps running on the Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, and SAP's HANA in-memory database.
Other developments include a Nvidia integration and Direct Access Program for pitching vSphere with GRID vGPU to designers and architects along with a new OpenStack distribution, intended to equip developers with open APIs granting access to VMware's infrastructure.
Financial details for the Immidio have not been disclosed.
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