Constellation Insights

Docker adding native support for Kubernetes: For the past couple of years, Docker has pushed Swarm as the default orchestration tool for its popular application container platform. But the Kubernetes container orchestration layer, originally created by Google and now a project at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, has far exceeded Swarm in popularity. 

Docker has ceded to this reality, announcing during its DockerCon EU conference this week that the next version of Docker Enterprise Edition will ship with support for both orchestrators. It was possible to use Kubernetes before, but the native support will make the experience seamless.

POV: Docker's announcement reportedly garnered ample applause from the DockerCon EU crowd, underscoring that while Docker has been a leading force in containers over the past several years, developers want to use the container-wrangling framework of their choice.

This comes as no surprise, as Kubernetes "is probably the fastest come back from behind win we have seen in infrastructure ever," says Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "The good news for enterprises is things get easier when making decisions, and lock-in on the container orchestration level has not happened yet. It's getting easier to place down your chips on the architecture for next-gen apps."

Splunk buys SignalSense in machine learning acqui-hire: In its second such move this month, machine data monitoring and analysis vendor Splunk has made an acquisition focused as much on talent as technology. It has purchased a startup called SignalSense, which focused on advanced data collection and breach detection tools:

Seattle-based SignalSense will join Splunk’s Products organization in its growing Seattle office. Splunk will leverage expertise from the SignalSense team to further advance its machine learning capabilities and its market-leading machine data platform.

“Before joining SignalSense, I spent three amazing years at Splunk, and I’m thrilled to return as the company continues to rapidly innovate. Splunk is the perfect platform for our team to make a big impact on Splunk’s substantial customer base,” said Brad Lovering, chief engineering officer, SignalSense.

POV: Earlier this month, Splunk paid an undisclosed sum for Rocana, another analytics startup, and also brought in some of its staff.

These are good moves by Splunk, which has the data but as of yet, not enough machine learning intelligence about that data, says Constellation's Mueller. That ultimately will determine who wins the crown in the market for connected economies and IoT, he adds. 

Intralinks gets flipped to private equity firm: Synchronoss Technologies is selling off its Intralinks secure filesharing software division to Siris Capital Partners for about $1 billion. The deal comes about a year after Synchronoss bought Intralinks for $821 million. While investors reacted poorly to the initial acquisition, the pact with Siris sent Synchronoss shares up significantly on Tuesday. 

There was reportedly a bidding war for Intralinks, with Siris offering $835 billion in June, and better offers coming in after that, according to Reuters

POV: The deal in and of itself isn't earth-shattering, but continues the trend over the past few years of private equity firms snapping up enterprise software vendors. Notable examples include BI vendor Qlik, bought by Thoma Bravo for $3 billion; and Dell's sell-off of its software group as part of the merger with EMC.

PE firms have warmed up to enterprise software companies due to their focus on top-line growth, but have also applied more discipline in order to drive out costs. For customers, the trend can mean good things indeed—Koch Industries invested more than $2 billion in Infor, money that is expected to ramp up the ERP vendor's already robust push into micro-verticals and innovation across the stack.