SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc., and a vendor in Java application infrastructure and management, has announced that VMware has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GemStone Systems, Inc., a privately held provider of enterprise data management solutions based in Beaverton, Ore.

The acquisition is intended to advance SpringSource and VMware's vision of providing the infrastructure necessary for emerging cloud-centric applications, with built-in availability, scalability, security and performance guarantees.

"Data management technologies are fundamental to the creation of applications, and with the rise of virtualization and cloud computing, the manner in which applications need to access data is evolving," states Rod Johnson, general manager of the SpringSource division of VMware. "Cloud computing is a distributed deployment model, and for that reason, caching and data accessibility are of far greater strategic importance than before. We are acquiring and will integrate into the SpringSource portfolio a well-regarded set of high-performing data management solutions with GemStone."

According to VMware and SpringSource, the GemStone acquisition, combined with the recent acquisition of Rabbit Technologies, Ltd., as well as the recent hiring of Salvatore Sanfilippo, the lead programmer for the open source Redis project, underscores their understanding of the critical role data management plays in application deployment to the cloud.

SpringSource says it plans to fully support GemStone's product line and will continue to support all GemStone customers. GemStone's flagship product is GemFire Enterprise, a scalable, distributed data platform that puts data where it is needed across a network to remove latency. Other GemStone products include GemFire SQLFabric, a memory-oriented SQL data management platform, and GemStone/S, a platform for running distributed Smalltalk applications.

For more about SpringSource, a VMware company, go here.