Here are some of the most prominent venture capital and merger and acquisition news items from the past month. If you’d like SDxCentral to report on your company’s VC or M&A activity, or if you have any tips on that activity, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya ([email protected]).

Google acquired CloudSimple, a startup that makes it easier for customers to move VMware workloads from their on-premises data centers into public clouds. The acquisition gives Google an edge as it competes against Amazon Web Services (AWS) and that public cloud provider’s hybrid cloud service with VMware called VMware Cloud on AWS.

Google first started working with the Santa Clara, California-based startup earlier this year, and this summer announced a VMware partnership that used CloudSimple technology to give customers native access to the full VMware stack deployed on Google Cloud Platform. Rich Sanzi, VP of engineering at Google Cloud, said the acquisition allows Google to “accelerate a fully integrated VMware migration solution.”

By using this migration tool, customers “apps can run exactly the same as they have been on-premises, but with all the benefits of the cloud, like performance, elasticity, and integration with key cloud services and technologies,” Sanzi wrote in a blog post. “And best of all, customers can do all this without having to re-architect existing VMware-based applications and workloads, which helps them operate more efficiently and reduce costs, while also allowing IT staff to maintain consistency and use their existing VMware tools, workflows, and support.”

Former Contrail Systems CEO Ankur Singla’s new startup Volterra officially launched with more than $50 million in funding and more than 30 customers using its distributed cloud platform.

Palo Alto Networks announced plans to acquire Aporeto, which has made a name for itself doing machine identity-based microsegmentation. The deal will cost Palo Alto approximately $150 million in cash.

Composable infrastructure startup Liqid scored a $28 million Series B funding round bringing its total raised to $50 million. Panorama Point Partners led the latest investment with participation from Iron Gate Capital and affiliates of DH Capital.

Aqua Security bought cloud security posture management company CloudSploit for an undisclosed amount. It’s the second acquisition for the container and serverless security vendor, and moves Aqua into cloud security posture management.

Infoblox announced the acquisition of network operating system (NOS) developer SnapRoute — for an undisclosed amount — in a bid to fill out the last remaining pieces of its emerging secure access service edge (SASE) platform.

Docker Inc. announced a corporate restructuring plan to sell off its Docker Enterprise business to Mirantis. The corporate restructuring will be fueled by a $35 million “recapitalization” investment from previous investors Benchmark Capital and Insight Partners.

dotData secured $23 million in Series A funding from JAFCO and Goldman Sachs, bringing the total amount of funding raised to date to $43 million.

Ciena closed its acquisition of assurance analytics and network performance provider Centina Systems, which the company plans to integrate into its Blue Planet division.

Deep learning-powered fraud prevention company RedMarlin completed a $10M million Series A funding round led by Thomvest Ventures and Crosslink Capital.

Chronosphere, the monitoring platform founded by ex-Uber engineers, locked in $11 million in Series A funding led by Greylock with participation from Lux Capital.

Immersive Labs raised $40 million in Series B funding from Summit Partners and existing investor Goldman Sachs.

Cloud-native data loss prevention platform Nightfall — formerly known as Watchtower AI — emerged from stealth with $20.3 million in funding led by Bain Capital Ventures and Venrock.

Styra secured $14 million in Series A funding led by Accel and with participation from previous investors Unusual Ventures and A.Capital.

Scottish LiFi company pureLiFi announced a $18 million Series B funding round.

Bare-metal hyperconverged platform provider Diamanti closed a $35 million Series C funding round with participation from current investors CRV, Goldman Sachs, GSR Ventures, Northgate Capital, and Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture).

1Password raised $200 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel.

Anti-phishing startup INKY locked in an additional $6 million in funding led by ClearSky Security with participation from Gula Tech Adventures to close out the start-up’s Series A round of funding.

Ribbon Communications entered into an agreement to acquire ECI Telecom for $32.5 million in Ribbon common stock and $324 million of cash.

IntSights secured a $30 million Series D funding round bringing the company's total funding to $70 million to date.

Abnormal Security emerged from stealth with $24 million in Series A funding led by Greylock Partners.

Codefresh announced a $100 million Open Source Fund offering grants up to $1 million for open source projects.  The fund is set to launch in 2020 with a focus on continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD).

Artificial intelligence (AI) and multicloud data management provider DDN completed its acquisition of the IntelliFlash enterprise business from Western Digital.

BigPanda raised $50 million in Series C funding for a total of more than $120 million to date.

Banyan Security closed a $17 million funding round led by Shasta Ventures and participation from Unusual Ventures.

Tray.io locked in $50 Mmllion in Series C funding led by Meritech Capital alongside existing investors Spark Capital, GGV Capital, and True Ventures for total funding of $109 million to date.

Continuous intelligence provider Sumo Logic penned a deal to acquire JASK Labs, a provider of cloud-native autonomous security operations center (ASOC) software for an undisclosed amount.

Proofpoint entered an agreement to buy insider threat management platform provider ObserveIT for $225 million.