Virtualisation leader VMware looks set to target better application performance when software is running virtually, after it acquired privately held B-hive Networks for an undisclosed sum today.

VMware said that B-hive technology would be used to offer, "Proactive performance management and service level reporting for applications running within VMware virtual machines (VMs) - on both servers and desktops."

VMware's chief technology officer Stephen Herrod, said "if B-hive identifies degradation in application response time, it can remediate the problem by automatically instructing VMware Infrastructure to adjust the resources allocated to the application or provision an additional VM with an additional instance of the application."

B-hive chief executive officer Yoav Dembak said that he envisaged the tie-up with VMware giving greater visibility into application performance as firms depend more on virtual environments, to the extent that it should "make it possible to resolve a problem before it occurs."

B-hive’s flagship product, B-hive Conductor, "not only monitors end-user performance and issues service level reports, but can also proactively resolve application performance problems by automatically triggering actions such as dynamically allocating more resources, migrating the application to a different server, provisioning additional VMs, changing transaction routing, or system re-boots," the firm said.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008.