The software VMware acquired includes Server Configuration Manager (formerly Configuresoft), FastScale, Application Discovery Manager (formerly nLayers), and Service Manager (formerly Infra). EMC will retain reseller rights to Ionix, while VMware will take over its engineering, marketing, sales and support operations in the United States, Europe, Israel, India and Australia.

Owning this portfolio was kind of a head-scratcher for EMC — while it has been steadily expanding its business well beyond storage hardware, it seems a more organic fit for customers to buy systems management software from the closest thing EMC has to a server hardware division in VMware. This also fits in with VMware’s ambitions to be the data center operating system — and management console — of the future.

According to a blog by Ben Verghese, chief management architect in VMware’s Virtualization and Cloud Platforms business unit, “An IT-as-a-Service model demands strong capabilities and automation across several aspects of management: provisioning, capacity, configuration, performance, business continuity. With the acquisition of the Ionix products, VMware will extend the capabilities of vCenter in order to meet these demands, especially around configuration management and compliance in the enterprise private cloud.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2010. For ongoing analysis of what this move means for VMware users, stay tuned to our SearchServerVirtualization.com sister site.