Cisco Acquires BroadHop for Network Policy Management
SDN and network programmability continue to drive Cisco's strategic direction
Cisco announced this week its intention to acquire network policy management vendor BroadHop.
Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed at this time. A Cisco spokesperson told Enterprise Networking Planet that closing is expected to occur in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. The date is subject to customary closing conditions.
BroadHop's policy management solution is already in use by over 90 telecom service providers. It's a segment of the market Cisco is actively engaging with an expansion of its service provider business and broader efforts for Software Defined Networking.
"Cisco’s acquisition of BroadHop is also an evolutionary step in supporting Cisco’s Open Network Environment (ONE) for extensible network programmability," Cisco's press release stated. "This policy infrastructure represents the baseline to monetization of the network and will enable Cisco to develop software services that empower network operators to deliver revenue-generating services, while enhancing the end-user experience."
SDN and network programmability are at the core of Cisco's strategy for 2013 and beyond. During Cisco's recent Financial Analyst day event, Cisco emphasized how important SDNis for the company. Cisco ONE (Open Network Environment) was first announced in June of this year as an effort to abstract all of the networking vendor's hardware operating systems providing a programmable network.
Cisco will be integrating the BroadHop assets in the Cisco’s Service Provider Networking Group. reporting to Shailesh Shukla, vice president and general manager of the company’s Software and Applications Group.
The acquisition of BroadHop is the latest in a string of recent Cisco acquisitions. Also in the Service Provider space, Cisco acquired network design vendor Cariden for $141 million. At the end of November Cisco acquired midmarket networking vendor Meraki for $1.2 billion.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
