Cisco buys SDN business Viptela

Networking giant Cisco has announced it means to buy privately-held software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) business Viptela to deliver more functionality and simplicity to its portfolio through the cloud.

Cisco said it found Viptela’s cloud-first approach to SDN aligned nicely with its own digital network architecture (DNA) transition towards more software-driven, automated networks that are better able to manage the increasing complexity of the present-day enterprise network, driven by mobility, the internet of things (IoT) and so on.

Viptela’s SD-WAN technology is designed to simplify management, improve agility and reduce the cost of interconnecting dispersed enterprise networks, with management, orchestration and overlay features to make it easy to deploy, said Cisco.

“Viptela’s technology is cloud-first, with a focus on simplicity and ease of deployment while simultaneously providing a rich set of capabilities and scale.

“These principles are what today’s customers demand,” said Cisco Enterprise Networking Group senior vice-president Scott Harrell.

“With Viptela and Cisco, we will be able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of comprehensive on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-based SD-WAN solutions.”

Viptela, which will set Cisco back $610m, will henceforth sit in the Enterprise Routing team within Cisco’s Networking and Security unit, where its technology will be combined with Cisco’s existing routing platforms, services and SD-WAN offering, as well as its intelligent WAN and Meraki businesses.

The purchase of Viptela marks Cisco’s second acquisition so far this year.

Back in January 2017, it picked up application performance management (APM) solutions supplier AppDynamics for $3.7bn, adding end-to-end visibility and intelligence across customer networks and applications.