For companies running applications from several vendors--and most do--a tool that monitors their performance is necessary, which is why Microsoft announced today that it’s acquiring BlueStripe, an application management service. Terms for the deal were not disclosed.
The two companies already share a joint customer base, with many companies running Microsoft MSFT System Center (which handles software deployment and updates) alongside BlueStripe software (which helps manage desktop applications). New Relic NEWR and Compuware CPWR are two companies (amongst others) also in the application management arena.
Microsoft will stop selling BlueStripe as it integrates the company’s technology into several of its other products but will continue to support Bluestripe's existing customers, according to a blog post by Mike Neil, Microsoft’s general manager of Enterprise Cloud.
The acquisition is the latest in a series of moves made by Microsoft to show it backs heterogeneous environments--companies that run non-Microsoft applications and operating systems, although in this case, those companies must use Microsoft software to monitor and manage those environments.
