A Systinet official had the same perspective. "Certainly, becoming a part of the Mercury [family] provides that security," said Thomas Erickson, CEO at Systinet, which will be run as a business unit in Mercury. Systinet has been in existence approximately five years and has 170 customers.

Mercury and Systinet have shared the commonality of independence and the ability to work with multiple vendors, Kenney said. Systinet has partnered with companies such as BEA Systems and Oracle.

Analysts said the acquisition may signal a trend in which smaller companies that have roots in Web services management and SOA governance are bought up by larger vendors.

"We see very rapid consolidation in this market," said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink.

Infravio is another governance vendor that has been eyed by other companies, according to Kenney. "What I can say is we [continually] get calls about acquisitions and overall viability and worth" regarding Gartner clients, Kenney said, with Infravio just one vendor that has attracted attention.