Networking vendor Brocade has acquired StackStorm, a start-up that builds software for automating datacentre operations.
StackStorm, which describes itself as an organization defined by the DevOps ideology, said on its blog that it will be joining Brocade to help accelerate the company’s efforts to bring DevOps style scalable open source automation to Brocade’s networking solutions. This is one of the first moves which Brocade has made to capitalize on the growing DevOps trends within the industry.
The company was launched in 2013 and left stealth mode in May 2014 promoting itself as a company which can streamline datacentre operations. The model itself is focused on incorporating a DevOps ideology into the datacentre, automating common tasks, claiming it can help companies run their facilities like Facebook, where a single person can be responsible for tens of thousands of servers, not just a couple of hundred.
On the Brocade blog, PG Menon, Senior Director of Technology & Strategy for Switching, Routing and Analytics said “Using StackStorm technology, Brocade customers will be able to bring DevOps methods to networking as well as experience many of the benefits of scale-out IT automation enjoyed by the Cloud Titans.
“Simply put, achieving business agility through DevOps methods for IT automation that also includes networking is no longer limited to Cloud Titans. Every IT shop will be able to realize those same benefits.”
While DevOps is seen as one of the strongest growing trends within the cloud industry, Brocade is building its business case on the fact that the use of DevOps is limited to tech giants at the top of the ladder such as Amazon and Facebook. The company aim to deliver the same agility to smaller organizations who cannot command the software manpower of the industry’s major players in designing and delivering DevOps-enabled business agility.
Under Brocade, the StackStorm technology will be extended to networking and new integrations will be developed for automation across IT domains such as storage, compute, and security. The StackStorm team also highlighted in its blog it anticipates investment from Brocade to increase the size of its team over the coming months.