Cisco to buy SD-WAN startup Viptela for $610mn

Cisco has announced that it is acquiring Viptela, a privately held software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) company based in San Jose in a deal worth $610 million.

Founded in 2012 by former Cisco engineers Amir Khan and Khalid Raza, Viptela has so far raised more than $108 million, including its most recent $75 million round just last May. The startup delivers end-to-end network virtualization that allows for application-aware routeing, service chaining, centralised policy, and orchestration capabilities.

While Cisco provides both on-premises and cloud-based SD-WAN offerings - including Cisco Intelligent WAN and Meraki SD-WAN -- its VP of corporate business development, Rob Salvagno, stated in a blog post that the acquisition will allow the company to provide an alternative for enterprises seeking an "easy to deploy" and "simple to manage" solution.

The acquisition will also " Cisco's transition to a recurring, software-based business model", Salvagno wrote.

"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 Scott Harrell, senior vice president of product management for the Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. "With Viptela and Cisco, we will be able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of comprehensive on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-based SD-WAN solutions."

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2017, after which Viptela team will join Cisco's Enterprise Routing team within the Networking and Security Business led by senior vice president David Goeckeler.

Cisco has been on a buying spree since 2015 making 19 acquisitions. Earlier this year it purchased AppDynamics, in a deal worth $3.7 billion.