GigaOM

Virtualization superstar VMware said today it would purchase Israeli startup B-hive Networks for an undisclosed amount. The B-hive team will form the base of VMware’s development center in Israel and give VMware a better way to track performance among virtualized machines.

Typically, performance mapping and monitoring software measures how well servers talk to one another, but in a virtualized environment, that gets more difficult. Instead, one needs to measure how well information gets from one virtualized machine to another. B-hive’s Conductor software helps track how fast and well data flows, from the end-user perspective, in both virtualized and physical environments, and can automatically adjust the server environment to deal with bottlenecks. B-hive raised $7 million in September 2006 from Index Ventures and Venrock Associates.

B-hive works in both VMware and Citrix XenServer environments, so I don’t know what will happen to Xen support after the deal closes. VMware has been an active buyer of virtualization startups in the last year. While it holds a huge lead over its competitors, it’s good to see it staying on the ball when it comes to adding features and services. This leaves Akorri and Netuitive as potential pickings for Citrix or Microsoft.

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