Dell Eyes Enterprise Cloud Management with Enstratius Buy

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Dell’s post-PC journey is following an increasingly cloud-based path.

The computer maker announced on May 6 that it had acquired Minneapolis, Minn.-based Enstratius, a cloud management startup whose profile has grown brighter over the past few weeks. In April, the company was named to the “Cool Vendors in Cloud Management 2013” list by Gartner.

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Responding to the accolade, Enstratius CEO David Bagley said in press remarks, “As enterprises increase their usage of public, private and hybrid clouds, the need for controls, security, governance and automation becomes more critical.” The statement encapsulates why Dell is snapping up the firm.

Enstratius takes a cloud-agnostic approach toward infrastructure management and orchestration, enabling organizations to automate application provisioning and scaling across private, public and hybrid clouds. Its platform, available as software-as-a-service (SaaS) or on-premise software, also features enterprise-grade governance capabilities, including authentication, access control and encryption.

Another selling point: cloud independence.

The company boasts that it supports a practically all-encompassing array of cloud platforms and service providers. These include Amazon Web Services, EMC Atmos, Eucalyptus, Google Storage, HP Cloud Services, OpenStack, Rackspace, VMware vSphere and Windows Azure to name a few. Enstratius also provides cloud management for Windows and popular Linux distros.

Now as a part of Dell Software, Enstratius tech will solidify the IT giant’s enterprise cloud computing slate. According to Dell, the newly-acquired assets will slot into a “strong portfolio” that includes Foglight, Quest ONE, Boomi, AppAssure and NetVault “to create a stronger systems management portfolio that enhances multi-cloud management.”

“Dell, together with Enstratius, is uniquely positioned to deliver differentiated, complete cloud-management solutions to enterprise customers, large and small, empowering them with the efficiency and flexibility in the allocation and use of resources,” said Dell Software’s Tom Kendra, vice president and general manager of systems management for the division.

The deal will also help Dell’s customers to quickly get up to speed on the cloud, noted Bagely. “Together, Enstratius and Dell create new opportunities for organizations to accelerate application and IT service delivery across on-premises data centers and private clouds, combined with off-premises public cloud solutions,” he said in press remarks.

It’s not the first time Dell has dipped into its coffers to snap up an up-and-coming cloud vendor.

In November, Dell acquired Gale Technologies — now Active System Manager — to help organizations maximize their investments in cloud servers. The infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) startup claimed that its vendor-neutral, automation and orchestration tech was capable of driving IT utilization rates from under 10 percent to over 95 percent.

Like the Gale buy, the terms of the Enstratius deal are being kept under wraps.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.