VMware acquires AetherPal to strengthen focus on IoT

VMware expands its product offering with the acquisition of AetherPal Inc., which develops software to help companies support endpoints for their staff, as well as devices connected to the Internet-of-Things. The amount VMware pays for AetherPal is not known.

Today, Shankar Iyer, Vice President of the End-User Department at VMware, announced the acquisition. According to him, it serves to strengthen the company’s Workspace One platform. It therefore offers a number of tools that help manage the applications and devices that employees of a company use as part of their work.

Remote Support

AetherPal makes it possible for system administrators to remotely maintain these types of devices. This is called Remote Support and allows users whose device is not working properly to deliver diagnostic data and setup files to the system administrator without the user having to go through it. It is then possible for the system administrator to remotely log in to the devices and repair them.

AetherPal’s software is widely used and runs on more than 45 million endpoints worldwide. Remote Support can be found on a wide range of different devices. Think of employees’ smartphones, the handheld scanners used in warehouses and even certain types of medical equipment.

Rapidly growing market

It is a fast-growing market, where VMware will gain a stronger foothold thanks to this acquisition. According to Iyer, more and more important apps and workflows go to places outside the office. For this reason, he expects remote support technology to be an important priority for companies of all sizes.

By the way, VMware has been offering the AetherPal software as part of its Workspace One since 2017. Now that the acquisition has been announced, VMware has announced its intention to further integrate the two solutions. We also need support for more devices.