Today, SpringSource, which makes the Spring Framework, the leading open source application framework for Java, announced that it has acquired Hyperic, which supplies enterprise application management and monitoring software. The move could lead to much deeper entrechment for SpringSource in enterprises, because Hyperic's flagship Hyperic HQ software troubleshoots and monitors hardware, networks, virtualization, cloud environments and massively scalable applications.

Hyperic's open source software is used for monitoring large enterprise MySQL deployments, among other things. Many retail, financial services, manufacturing and technology companies already use SpringSource to manage the lifecyles of Java applications. But With Hyperic under its wing, SpringSource can potentially start to manage many more critical aspects of enterprise networks, and  ambitious cloud applications.

We've written before about the challenges that proprietary virtualization players  such as VMware face from open source virtualization applications. The problem for the proprietary players is that the free, open source virtualization offerings are now very good tools, and are increasingly built right into popular operating systems. Aside from appearing as utility-like modules in operating systems, though, virtualization is becoming a central part of open source network and systems management platforms.

Cloud computing and the whole trend toward outsourcing compute power are creating lots of buzz, but how do you know when there is a problem out in the cloud? That's the problem that Hyperic has been focused on with its CloudStatus offering. With CloudStatus, you can keep track of availability, latency, throughput and more. Our sister blog GigaOm notes today that CloudStatus is now monitoring Google App Engine Infrastructure, in addition to Amazon's web services. Check it out.