Sun Microsystems has agreed to acquire Aduva for an undisclosed sum. Aduva develops software that automates patching for Solaris and Linux servers. 

The firm's technology automatically tracks updates for the Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions on Intel, AMD, Power and mainframe chip architectures. However, the software does not currently support Sun's Sparc architecture.

As updates are published, the offering tests and certifies the patches before they are distributed to users, making for a smoother update process, the company claims.

"Sun will be addressing the number one pain point we hear from IT administrators - patch management - while addressing the principal cause of service downtime and system vulnerability: out of date systems and patches," said Don Grantham, executive vice president of Sun Services.

"By integrating this technology into our offerings and services, Sun can enable customers to update thousands of systems at the touch of a button."

Silicon Valley-based Aduva was founded in 1999 and has about 40 employees.