Just days after virtualisation provider VMware announced its $1.3 billion acquisition of ‘network virtualisation’ pioneer Nicira, Oracle has acquired a virtual networking vendor of its own, named Xsigo.

Xsigo’s technology allows users to create virtual, software-defined networks within their data centres. This lets them get more utilisation out of their network infrastructure components and removes some of the configuration required when setting up new virtual servers, the company claims.

Unlike Nicira, Xsigo’s technology is not based on OpenFlow, the best known software-defined networking protocol, which promises to allow organisations to use networking devices from multiple vendors. Nevertheless, Xsigo claims that it delivers "soliutions that connect to any server, network or storage, regardless of protocol type."

Oracle already sells some server and storage networking equipment, thanks to its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. "The combination of Oracle’s software, server, storage and network product portfolio with Xsigo’s software-defined networking products is expected to deliver the most complete set of virtualisation capabilities for cloud environments," it said in a statement.

Earlier this year, IT market watcher IDC predicted that software-defined networking will grow from a $200 million business to $2 billion in 2016.