Oracle buys Xsigo for software-defined networking

Move comes shortly after VMware announced plans to buy Xsigo competitor Nicira.

Oracle it has inked a deal to buy software-defined networking vendor Xsigo Systems, in a move that will support Oracle's ongoing foray into cloud computing. Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close within a few months, were not disclosed.The announcement comes a week after VMware said it would buy Xsigo competitor Nicira for $1.26 billion.

Software-defined networking has become one of the hottest topics in the networking industry.

Xsigo's technology can create virtualized pools of networking capacity, allowing resources to be delivered dynamically according to computing needs, and used much more efficiently, according to its website. Its customers include Verizon, Softbank, and British Telecom.

Xsigo's tools will be combined with Oracle's Oracle VM server virtualization technology, according to a statement.

This year, Oracle began moving aggressively into cloud computing with a public cloud service that will deliver on-demand business applications as well as a Java PaaS (platform as a service) and cloud database.

Oracle's approach to cloud computing relies heavily on virtualization. While the Xsigo acquisition seems focused on increasing performance and cost savings within Oracle's data centers, the vendor is also seeking to use virtualization as a point of differentiation.

Hitachi opens an SAP competency center

In order to strengthen the collaboration between the two companies, Hitachi opened a Global Competency Center for SAP Solutions, on the campus of the vendor, in Germany.

This center opened in Walldorf, near Frankfurt, in Germany. As a press release relates it, this new center is to enable a closer collaboration between Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and SAP, leading to the development and certification of recent solutions based on the SAP environment.

On a surface of more than 300 square feet, the center is equipped with a lab as well as a few meeting rooms to come up with scenario for the use of HDS technologies for the HANA platform. HDS and SAP declare being willing to commonly target the use of new technologies, namely for the cloud and real-time mobile solutions.