IT management software specialist Managed Objects has revealed plans for a new suite specially designed for monitoring and managing virtual machines.

Speaking exclusively to IT Week, Managed Objects' president and CEO Siki Giunta said the rapid adoption of virtualisation software by many firms meant there would soon be a surge in demand for software capable of monitoring how virtualised systems impact business processes.

"Everyone is focused on creating virtual servers or storage [systems], but no one is focused on managing it," she said. "We want to be there with a product when companies realise they need that management. There will definitely be a big announcement in 2007."

Managed Objects believes the ability to manage virtual servers from a central suite will deliver business benefits in the form of reduced support costs and higher availability. "You need to know the risk facing your systems," argued Giunta. "If you have physical servers you know when it's not working, but with virtual servers it is far more complex to work out what is working efficiently and what processes they are supporting. That is the issue we are looking to address."

She added that the complexity of many virtualised infrastructures will force firms to adopt centralised management suites. "We are going to see departments running VMWare, Zen, Microsoft and Sun all with their own management console," she predicted. "But how do you know which systems support which business process? There is a gap in the market for a system capable of bringing the information together on one console."

Neil Macehiter, research director at analyst firm Macehiter Ward-Dutton, agreed there was a growing demand for management systems that address virtual machines. "Firms that have used virtualisation for server consolidation are now using it for new use cases, like consolidating back up or dynamic resource all ocation," he said. "Managed Objects is correct that there is a need for better management tooling for dealing with this more complex virtual environment."

However, Macehiter argued Managed Objects was not alone in having recognised this opportunity, claiming that established virtualisation providers, such as VMWare and Microsoft, were already investing heavily in a better management layer for their systems.

Separately, Giunta revealed the vendor was currently investigating an IPO as a means of raising funds for future acquisitions and was actively considering whether to float on the Nasdaq or AIM exchange. She added that the company was likely to float in late 2007 or early 2008.

"Growing organically is very hard and we think going public would give us the currency that would make transactions far easier," she said.