BMC Software announced Friday it has purchased GridApp Systems, maker of software tools for database provisioning, patching and management in physical and cloud deployments. Terms were not disclosed.

GridApp's Clarity software is already plugged into BMC's BladeLogic Server Automation platform, and will strengthen BMC's existing technologies for cloud lifecycle management, according to a statement. Its automation capabilities free up time and resources otherwise spent on database management, the company said.

The acquisition gives BMC database automation products with a wide reach.

GridApp's Clarity platform supports Oracle, DB2 UDB, MySQL, Sybase and SQL Server databases, as well as Linux, Windows, Solaris, HP-UX and AIX operating systems. Supported database clustering technologies include Oracle RAC, Microsoft Cluster Server and Veritas.

It can also be used to manage databases on public clouds, including Amazon's EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and Go Grid.

In addition, the deal extends BMC's presence in some of the world's largest companies.

GridApp's customers include Bank of America, General Electric, Lockheed Martin and Merrill Lynch. Top partners include Hewlett-Packard, Quest Software, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft.

BMC's move further heightens the competition between itself and fellow "Big Four" systems management vendors like HP, which bought GridApp competitor Stratavia in August.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com