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Cisco emboldens cloud security, acquires Indian firm Pawaa

Prakash Baskaran, founder, Pawaa, is the new CTO at the security solutions division of Cisco

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Sonal Desai
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MUMBAI, INDIA: Networking major Cisco which indicated its increased focus on its security portfolio with various acquisitions in the recent past, has strengthened its offerings with the acquisition of Bengaluru-based IT security company Pawaa.

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While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Cisco said that Pawaa offers security solutions and cloud-based file-sharing software; this will now be integrated with Cisco’s Software Platform Group. Prakash Baskaran, founder, Pawaa, is the new CTO at the company’s security solutions division.

“Security is a bigger opportunity for India than IT. There is a shortage of hundreds of thousands of security professionals globally and India can solve that problem,” Pankaj Patel, Executive Vice-President and Chief Development Officer, Cisco, told BusinessLine, adding that Cisco will be willing to invest in, or acquire, more such innovative companies in this space.

Pawaa was a part of Cisco’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, an initiative that supports early-stage entrepreneurs working on the next big ideas in technologies, such as big data analytics, smart cities, cloud computing and enterprise security.

According to BusinessLine, Pawaa became a part of this six-month program at Cisco’s San Jose campus in 2014, after which Cisco decided to acquire the company’s capabilities in providing policy-based data flow between business systems and people.

Cisco’s investment arm has already put money in many Indian companies, including Covacsis, MobStacs and MobiKwik. Pawaa is the first direct acquisition by the company in the country. Cisco invests $1.7 billion a year in India, much of which goes into improving its research and development capabilities.

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