At VMworld 2010, VMware announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Integrien, a provider of real-time performance analytics. This move signals VMware’s recognition that more automated types of analytics are needed to manage the performance of virtual and cloud environments effectively.

“Today’s IT organizations are under pressure to increase service levels and build the next-generation infrastructure and applications for the cloud — all with the resources they have today,” says Boaz Chalamish, Vice President and General Manager, Management Products, VMware. “The dynamic nature of modern infrastructures and cloud environments requires a new management paradigm, and VMware is uniquely positioned to build on the foundation of virtualization and fundamentally improve how organizations manage IT services.”

Combined with VMware vCenter management products, Integrien offers an improved user interface and automated thresholding for VMware. The acquisition is anticipated to close in the third calendar quarter of 2010, and financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Sources say that the Integrien product, currently called AliveVM, is scheduled to ship as Beta in September with version 1.0 release by end of year. This is Integrien’s first product for analyzing VMware environments.

Although VMware could not make further comment because the deal is not finalized, the industry is making their own judgments about the meaning of this acquisition.

“The acquisition shows that VMware is looking to address manageability issues posed by virtualization,” says Nicola Sanna, CEO & President of Netuitive, a provider of self-learning performance management and predictive analytics. “With Integrien, they can now offer a more attractive user interface and low cost thresholding tool that should be appealing for basic deployments of VMware.”

However, Sanna adds, “Enterprise deployments of VMware that exceed 1,000 VMs or rely on storage, network and application management will still need a robust behavior learning and analytics solution for end-to-end management.”