The LiveAction network performance tools look set to build out and complement more enterprise-grade observability and intelligence for a wider range of customers.
Francine Geist, chief executive of LiveAction, has revealed that BlueCat Networks has agreed to acquire LiveAction. Consequently, LiveAction will move to its “next chapter” for growth.
“We share a commitment to customers and continued innovation to help them harness the value of their network infrastructure,” Geist said in the acquisition announcement.
BlueCat Networks offers unified domain name system (DNS), dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), and IP address management (IPAM). The three acronyms are often further abbreviated as DDI.
Stephen Devito, chief executive at BlueCat Networks, said acquiring LiveAction further broadened its portfolio. Last year, BlueCat bought Indeni, adding infrastructure assurance.
“Adding LiveAction’s industry-leading network performance monitoring (NPM), packet capture and forensics offerings strengthens BlueCat’s network infrastructure management,” Devito said.
BlueCat’s Indeni acquisition was about assuring core network services, including dependent load balancing and security devices. LiveAction took BlueCat “a step further”, enabling “deep insight” into network impacts, Devito said.
LiveAction offered integrated flow and deep packet analysis, dynamic visualisations, troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and forensics. Analyst GigaOm has characterised LiveAction as a “strong challenger” and “outperformer” in its 2024 network-observability radar.
The transaction is expected to close in October. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Networking needs and integrated tooling
A LiveAction whitepaper highlighted that NPM tools should also speed up problem resolution or repair.
Additionally, they should bolster network and application security as well as minimise outages or downtime. The idea is to ensure network speed and availability at all times, the vendor said.
LiveAction questioned 250 workers for the whitepaper. Most performed network management tasks, and many had to manage multiple different types of network.
Networking teams often still rely on manual processes and repetitive tasks. Often four or five NPM tools were needed, according to the vendor.
“These processes and tools have yet to embrace and integrate AI and a broader class of IT automation to reduce operational overhead and complexity,” LiveAction said.
Yet companies now commonly manage cloud footprints, hybrid cloud architectures, software-defined (SD) networks and WAN, edge computing environments and more.
For that reason, LiveAction offered more integrated tooling for NPM solutions. At the same time, only one in three survey respondents reported being “very satisfied” with incumbent NPM tools, the vendor said.
( Image by Bjarki Hildarson from Pixabay )
