Sun Snaps Up SevenSpace

Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) is looking to expand its managed services portfolio with the acquisition of remote management specialist SevenSpace Inc.

The Santa Clara, California-based firm announced the all-cash transaction earlier today, although the financial details are still being kept under wraps.

"Managed services" means outsourcing specific technology functions, and Sun is keen to beef up its core offering in this space as it attempts to catch up with arch-rival IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM).

Ashburn, Virginia-based SevenSpace offers technologies to remotely manage and monitor customers' data center infrastructures. These encompass network devices, enterprise applications from SAP AG (NYSE/Frankfurt: SAP) and PeopleSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: PSFT), Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) databases, and the Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.

This is something of a departure for Sun, according to Andrew Efstathiou, program manager at analyst firm Yankee Group. Before, Sun had some infrastructure management, but not on this scale,” he said.