As 451 group reported some weeks ago <here> and Forrester revoked <here> some days later, Run-Book-Automation and IT Process Automation leader Opalis is indeed sold to Microsoft, as it is announced on Technet.com Website <‘Microsoft Acquires Opalis Software’>.

You can also find some interesting reading from Opalis’ CEO Todd DeLaughter at the Opalis Blog <‘Opalis joins the Microsoft System Center product lineup’>.

Opalis will be combined with Microsofts System Center product line. More informationen about the acquisition can be retrieved <here>.

A very interesting company these days seems to be Elastra <HOMEPAGE>. They are evangelists of a new approach to so called ‘Elastic Computing’ which might be the ‘next generation in IT infrastructure‘. What in the beginning seems to be a very ambitious idea, is well presented and well documented and seems to make sense in many respects. My understanding after a first look is, that they basically of tool set, called the ‘Elastra Cloud Server On Demand‘ sitting on top of a generic cloud provider like e.g. Amazon EC2. Utilizing the ‘Elastic Computing Markup Language‘ (ECML) and the ‘Elastic Deployment Markup Language‘ (EDML) to have a structured description of cloud environments they want to revolutionize design, deployment, management and especially the automation of cloud computing solutions, including new pricing models and much more.

If one wants to dig into details, navigate to their smoothly designed products page <HERE> and have a look in the Whitepapers to learn something about clouds and their constraints. Or read this Grid Today article <HERE>.

I will watch them closely.

Roland