SolarWinds Pays $117.5M To Acquire VividCortex, Expanding MSP Database Management

VividCortex's SaaS-based data performance management technology complements the server-based data performance management technology SolarWinds currently offers MSPs, and the two over time could be combined.

MSP IT management software vendor SolarWinds has acquired VividCortex, a developer of SaaS-delivered database performance management technology, for $117.5 million.

VividCortex is not SolarWinds' first foray into database management, said David Gardiner, executive vice president of core IT for the Austin, Texas-based vendor.

SolarWinds previously offered Database Performance Analysis, or DPA, to its MSP customers to manage databases including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and DB2 whether on-premises or in the cloud, Gardiner told CRN.

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"VividCortex brings in management of all cloud-first opensource databases as well, including Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis, PostgreSQL, and MySQL," he said. "So now we'll offer the full range of database performance analysis capabilities. The largest deployment of databases is on-premises. But the fastest-growing part of the business comes from the cloud. So there's a growth opportunity here that combines the cloud and on-premises."

SolarWinds acquired VividCortex for $117.5 million, Gardiner said.

For the time being, SolarWinds plans to keep DPA and VividCortex as separate products, but it is looking at a combined roadmap sometime down the road, Gardiner said.

"We will make it available however customers need database performance management," he said. "Our DPA is delivered on-premises on a server or deployed in a hosted server in a cloud, with customers procuring the license and server. VividCortex is SaaS-based, so customers can just sign up with the service."

SolarWinds has been in business about 20 years, and in that time has grown both organically and via over 30 acquisitions, Gardiner said.

"We look at acquiring companies that fit our model," he said. "We have a disruptive, go-to-market strategy which focuses on the buyer and not the management, and we offer them a try-and-buy sales model."