VMware Inc. is expanding its product portfolio with the acquisition of partner AetherPal Inc., which develops software that helps companies support employee endpoints and “internet of things” devices. 

Shankar Iyer, the vice president of end-user computing at VMware, wrote today that the deal, whose terms weren’t disclosed, will bolster the company’s Workspace One platform. It provides a collection of tools for managing the applications and devices an organization’s employees use as part of their work.

What New Jersey-based AetherPal brings to the table is a service that enables administrators to remotely maintain those devices. The offering, dubbed Remote Support, helps users quickly bring up the configuration files and other diagnostics data needed to troubleshoot a malfunctioning endpoint. If there’s no easy way to resolve the issue on the user’s end, administrators can remotely log into the device to fix it themselves.

AetherPal’s software runs on more than 45 million endpoints worldwide. Companies use Remote Support with a wide range of devices including employee phones, the handheld scanners employed in warehouses to catalog items, point-of-sale systems and even certain types of medical equipment.

This is a fast-growing market where VMware will have a bigger presence in the wake of today’s acquisition. “As more business-critical applications and workflows move to new form factors and locations outside the office, remote support technology will likewise become a high priority requirement for supporting employees across all businesses,” Iyer wrote.

The Dell Technologies Inc. subsidiary has already been offering AetherPal’s software as part of Workspace One since 2017. Following the acquisition, VMware plans to integrate the two solutions more tightly and add support for more use cases.

Other leading enterprise technology providers are also working to address the rapid proliferation of connected devices. A couple weeks ago, VMware rival Microsoft Corp. launched a cloud service aimed at making it easier to access and troubleshoot systems located at the edge of the network.

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE