Cisco to acquire ClearAccess to boost network management capabilities

Move aims to enable service providers to better deliver and manage their services

Cisco is to buy device management software provider ClearAccess in a bid to boost its network management capabilities.

The acquisition includes ClearAccess' software business. The hardware portion of ClearAccess' business - Smart RG Gateways - will continue as SmartRG.

ClearAccess, a privately owned company in Washington, provides TR-069-based software to service providers for control over a variety of devices in the home and business.

The networking giant said the combined capabilities of Cisco's network management software portfolio - Cisco Prime and ClearAccess - will deliver service providers with a set of tools for managing the connected home, including monitoring and managing bandwidth usage, parental controls, diagnostics and analytics.

Cisco's vice president and general manager of service provider applications, Jamie Lerner, said: "ClearAccess provides a technology that will advance Cisco's mission to offer service providers a set of tools to manage their networks within the home and across any connected device, amid the ongoing proliferation in network traffic."

The ClearAccess team will work within the Cisco Network Management Technology Group.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2012. Financial terms were not disclosed.