One of the challenges with a virtual infrastructure is the dependencies that exist between its many discrete components, making management of the overall system complex.

Netuitive's software collects data about performance and utilization levels throughout the infrastructure, and analyzes these to build a picture of its overall health and any problems that might arise. Netuitive says its software has patented "self learning" capabilities.

Dell announced its Virtual Integrated System, or VIS, early last year and has been through partnerships, acquisitions and some of its own development work. It's part of Dell's effort to expand beyond PC sales into more profitable areas.

VIS is designed to ease the provisioning and management of physical and virtual systems, including servers, networks and storage gear. It aims to compete with offerings such as Cisco's Unified Computing System and Hewlett-Packard's Blade System Matrix, which was recently rebranded as CloudSystem Matrix.

Dell says it built VIS primarily with mid-size companies in mind, and claims VIS differs from rival products because it can manage equipment from a variety of vendors.