Cisco distances itself further from hardware base with Viptela acquisition

Cisco's acquisition of Viptela takes the company further out of its traditional territory and into the software space

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Viptela, a company the delivers a software-designed wide area network (SD WAN) solution.

Viptela's technology, deployed in some 16,000 locations worldwide, will aid Cisco in increasing its cloud functionality and extending its SD-WAN portfolio. SVP of product management Scott Harrell said that the deal will mean that Cisco can offer a more comprehensive solution of hybrid, on-premise and cloud SD-WAN services.

Cisco will make ‘significant investments' to improve Viptela's solution further, it says, by combining the product with its own ISR (integrated service routers) platform and IWAN (intelligent wide area network) solution. The addition of Viptela will help Cisco in its move to a software-first business model, the company feels.

Software-defined wide area network technologies are designed to enable companies to connect all of their offices to an internal system, securely and quickly, over large geographical distances. In the past, such connections often required proprietary hardware; however, SD-WAN services move more control into the cloud.

Today Cisco already delivers an on-premise solution with IWAN (for customers requiring advanced routing features and network services), and a cloud-based solution in Meraki (providing unified threat management). Viptela's product will enable Cisco to deliver increased functionality through the cloud: for example, cloud orchestration; management of branch networks; and overlay technologies. Customers can manage the WAN centrally through a real-time dashboard.

The price of the acquisition is said to be around $610 million in assumed equity awards and cash. The acquisition should be completed by the second half of 2017.