Dell Technologies Inc. is buying Moogsoft Inc., a startup with an artificial intelligence operations platform that helps companies troubleshoot technical issues in their infrastructure.

Dell disclosed the acquisition Wednesday in a brief announcement that didn’t specify the financial terms. The company expects to close the deal in its current fiscal quarter, which runs through Oct. 28.

Moogsoft launched in 2012 and went on to raise more than $92 million from investors across several rounds. Along the way, it built up a customer base that comprised more than 140 organizations as of early 2022. The startup’s customers include American Airlines Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and other major enterprises.

The company provides an AIOps software platform that uses artificial intelligence to detect malfunctions in companies’ technology infrastructure. Furthermore, it helps administrators identify the root cause of those malfunctions.

The platform works by collecting diagnostics data from a company’s infrastructure and analyzing that data to find technical issues. Moogsoft gathers information about events such as server outages. It also collects metrics, data points that usually don’t describe specific events but rather trends such as a gradual decrease in application performance.

According to the company, its platform includes patented algorithms that filter 99% of the data “noise” collected from a company’s systems. The platform then enriches the information that remains with contextual details. Moogsoft can, for example, enrich an alert about an application outage with information on what business unit is affected.

The algorithms automatically analyze the collected data and pinpoint the most important items. That reduces the need for administrators to manually sift through raw diagnostics information. 

In some cases, multiple technical issues can crop up simultaneously within a company’s network. For example, if a database that powers several different applications experiences an outage, those applications may all go offline at once. The platform finds and groups related error alerts to ease troubleshooting for administrators.

Moogsoft debuted a cloud edition of its platform in September 2020. In March 2022, the startup disclosed that its installed base of cloud customers grew by more than 150% since the offering’s launch. More recently, the startup announced that it experienced its fastest growth in two years during the first quarter of 2023.

Dell said the acquisition of Moogsoft will “further enhance Dell’s AIOps capabilities, as part of its longstanding approach of embedding AI functionality within its product portfolio.” The company plans to share more details about its plans after the deal closes later this quarter.

Dell previously acquired a startup called Cloudify Ltd. in January. The startup built a platform that makes it easier to create and manage application environments. Dell, which reportedly spent $100 million on the acquisition, said that it will use Cloudify’s technology to enhance its edge computing offerings. 

Image: Moogsoft