Why VMware Bought the Network Monitoring Startup Nyansa

VMware’s recent acquisition of AI-powered network analytics startup Nyansa strengthens its network monitoring and management capabilities, but the startup’s technology also beefs up VMware’s broader, strategic efforts to help customers automate IT operations, analysts say. VMware said it was buying Nyansa in January. The Palo Alto, California-based startup is behind Voyance, a cloud-based network analytics system that provides network visibility and, using machine learning, detects problems and anomalies and recommends potential fixes to improve network and application performance. Six years in existence, Nyansa has made inroads into the network performance management market and attracted some big-name customers, including Uber, Walmart, Tesla, and Proctor and Gamble.VMware executives said in a blog post that the software giant would pair Voyance with SD-WAN by VeloCloud, its software-defined WAN platform – and that the acquisition would ultimately help it deliver on the promise of self-healing networks. (VMware acquired VeloCloud in 2017.)