VMware says it is buying Avi Networks, a startup that helps companies with application delivery in the cloud, which has raised $115M, per Crunchbase
Ron Miller / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
Avi Networks is the latest piece in a multi-year VMware shopping spree aimed at managing applications beyond the data center: it bought cloud-monitoring startup Wavefront in 2017, picked up app-analytics firm Apteligent weeks later, and paid roughly $450M for software-defined WAN company VeloCloud that November.
App delivery — load balancing and traffic management for cloud-deployed apps — is the missing service layer on top of those monitoring and networking buys, and it lands months before VMware closes its largest deal of the arc, the $2.7B Pivotal acquisition, which pulls developer platform into the same portfolio.
First-order effects
- Avi Networks' investors exit with a return on the startup's $115M raised, per Crunchbase, while VMware gains software-based application delivery to bundle alongside its VeloCloud networking and Wavefront monitoring products.
Second-order effects
- Dedicated application-delivery-controller vendors now compete against a delivery capability sold as part of VMware's broader virtualization and multi-cloud stack, shifting the contest from product features to bundle pricing.
- Enterprise customers evaluating multi-cloud tooling can source traffic management, SD-WAN, monitoring, and analytics from a single vendor, raising switching costs against point-solution rivals.
Third-order effects
- If the acquisition cadence holds, VMware is consolidating the multi-cloud operations layer through tuck-ins rather than partnerships, pressuring independent infrastructure-software startups toward exits instead of standalone growth.
The trend: Infrastructure incumbents are buying their way into multi-cloud application services, folding venture-backed point tools into consolidated platform bundles.