As it moves towards more software-centric solutions, Cisco has announced its intention to acquire Meraki.
This proposed acquisition could help expand Cisco’s cloud based network offerings to new markets.
Meraki Inc. is one of the leading companies in cloud networking. It offers midmarket customers on-premise networking solutions that can be centrally managed from the cloud.
Rob Soderbery, Senior Vice President at Cisco Enterprise Networking Group, said: “The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises. These companies have the same IT needs as larger organisations, but without the resources to integrate complex IT solutions.”
“Meraki’s solution was built from the ground up optimized for cloud, with tremendous scale, and is already in use by thousands of customers to manage hundreds of thousands of devices.”
Meraki technology offers customers Wi-Fi, switching, security and mobile device management centrally managed from the cloud. Meraki solutions support BYOD, guest networking, application control, WAN optimization, application firewall and other advanced networking services.
Meraki was founded by members of MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science. Meraki combines a high-velocity software development methodology with a tightly linked inside sales and channel model that will form the new Cloud Networking Group.
It is reported by Cisco that under the terms of the agreement, it will pay approximately US$1.2 billion in cash and retention-based incentives to acquire the entire business and operations of Meraki. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2013, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory review.
