Cisco this week said it would acquire privately held Composite Software, a provider of data virtualiaation software and services, for $US180 million.
Composite's software makes data collected from across the network appear as if it's in one place. This logical representation is intended to speed and improve decision making, Cisco says.
Composite will play a key role in Cisco's plan to develop an IT simplification platform. This platform appears to also include Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) server and associated components, and technology from another recently acquired company, SolveDirect.
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"Cisco's strategy is to create a next generation IT model that provides highly differentiated solutions to help solve our customers' most challenging business problems," said Gary Moore, Cisco president and COO, in a statement. "By combining our network expertise with the performance of Cisco's Unified Computing System and Composite's software, we will provide customers with instant access to data analysis for greater business intelligence."
Cisco also says a combination of Composite and SolveDirect's process integration platform will provide cross-domain data and workflow integration for real-time business operations.
Composite will join a Cisco services group that is led by both Mala Anand, senior vice president of Cisco Services Platforms Group, and Mike Flannagan, senior director and general manager of the Integration Brokerage Technology Group. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2014, which closes in late October
Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 25 years, 21 at Network World. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy.
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