Akimbi, which emerged from stealth mode only last September, captures the images of the mix of hardware platforms, operating systems, and versions of software that new software is tested against. The goal is eliminating the guesswork of tracking the actual environments in which software is tested and deployed. They call it virtual lab automation.
Under the deal, EMC’s VMware unit will absorb the roughly 30-person staff into its developer division.
Interestingly, the press release positions the deal as a VMware, rather than an EMC acquisition.
It’s clear to the market that we run as an independent unit of EMC, said Dan Chu, senior director of developer and ISV products for the VMware unit. This acquisition was done from a VMware standpoint, he added, even if, ultimately, EMC writes the checks.
During its nine months in the market, Akimbi has drawn roughly a couple dozen customers for its Slingshot offering, and won a second round of $8 million funding. As of now, most of its customer base also uses VMware.
Virtualizing test environments proved a natural synergy with VMware, which virtualizes deployment environments. Since March, Akimbi has also been part of VMware’s Community Source Program, where members get advanced access to source code.
Since its debut, Akimbi has competed an older player, Surgient, which provides a hosted service (rather than software). And both have vied for VMware’s affections as partners. According to Chu, VMware still expects to continue its partnership with Surgient. In turn, he expects to continue Akimbi’s efforts to develop technology connectivity to Microsoft’s rival Virtual Server platform.
Chu is billing the acquired Akimbi offering as a full software lifecycle solution for enabling virtual machine libraries, virtual lab automation, configuration capture and management and policy-based self- service access to virtual machines.
But as to the Akimbi product, for now VMware is discontinuing Slingshot in favor of adding some VMware bells and whistles for a beta scheduled for Q3. Chu wouldn’t yet disclose what the makeup of the next version of the product under the VMware developer brand would be.
