We've written about VKernel before; the young New Hampshire startup produces virtual appliances for VMware. It looks like the Nashua-based folks have something to be happy about after the Pats loss on Sunday -- they've picked up $4.6M in VC funding.

I got a note late this afternoon from Dave Repczynski, VKernel's director of product management. The management team is pretty darn happy with the infusion and plans to use its first-round cash as expected -- for product development, boosting sales targets, and promotion of brand. Hummer Winblad Venture and Polaris Ventures both gain a seat on the board as part of the deal. The Polaris portfolio contains a range of young life science and tech companies; Hummer Winblad tends to invest in software startups like Scalent Systems. Aside from Scalent's V/OE, as near as I can tell neither VC house invested heavily in virtualization.

$4.6 million from a Round A roundup in yet another Nashua/Boston area deal. Not bad for a company started in January of '07 that only has 67 registered users on its discussion boards. I think I need to start a string chart of all the recent VC-VM deals going down; it seems there might be a tangle or two near Rt. 3 and 495...

VKernel's appliances offer tools to 'control VM sprawl,' and can provide organizations with charge-back mechanisms for virtualized environments, something near and dear to the hearts of IT managers, CIOs, and CFOs everywhere. Jonathan Berdyck reviewed one of VKernel's virt appliances back in October if you are interested.