Sun Comes Up on Belgian Acquisition

Sun already offers cloud-computing solutions for the MYSQL database management system, and Q-layer's software could also form part of Sun's "Project Caroline" research and development effort, a hosting platform aimed at small and medium-sized Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.

Cloud computing is certainly gaining momentum at the moment.

Even the Department of Defense has thrown its weight behind cloud technology, which is championed by the likes of EMC (EMC Quote), Amazon (AMZN Quote) and Google (GOOG Quote).

Sun's rivals Hewlett-Packard and IBM have also been ramping up their cloud efforts, and Microsoft(MSFT Quote), recently unveiled a cloud-based version of Windows, underlining the technology's growing popularity.

However, cloud computing is not without its challenges, and it was recently cited by Microsoft as one of security professionals' biggest headaches. Outages, such as those suffered by Amazon's S3 offering, also have focused attention on the reliability of cloud services.

Sun is not the only tech firm looking to bolster its cloud story through mergers and acquisitions. Storage giant EMC, for example, bought some parts of software specialist SourceLabs for an undisclosed fee.

SourceLabs, which develops technology to support and manage open source software, is also parting company with some of its employees, who will join EMC, according to media reports. A spokesman for the storage firm confirmed that the SourceLabs assets and employees will be integrated into EMC's cloud infrastructure group.

Shares of Sun closed Wednesday's trading session up 12 cents, or 2.4%, to $5.09.