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Cisco buys Springpath for $320 million

Springpath has been around since 2012 and the networking giant led its Series C funding round two years ago.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor
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Cisco on Monday announced that it plans to buy Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software startup Springpath for around $320 million.

Springpath is known for the development of a distributed file system for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems.

Hyperconverged infrastructure systems -- which IDC projects will be a $6 billion market opportunity by 2020 -- have been a focus for enterprise hardware vendors for some time. The idea behind hyperconvergence is to simplify deployments as software-defined architectures take over.

Springpath has been around since 2012 and the networking giant led its Series C funding round two years ago. In early 2016, the two companies worked together to launch the HyperFlex platform, which combines Cisco's compute and networking with software-defined storage software.

Going forward, Cisco said it plans to use Springpath to bolster its data center portfolio and grow its computing business. In terms of corporate structure, the Springpath team will join Cisco's Computing Systems Product Group led by Liz Centoni. The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal 2018.

"This acquisition is a meaningful addition to our data center portfolio and aligns with our overall transition to providing more software-centric solutions," said Rob Salvagno, Cisco's VP of business development.

Cisco has been on a bit of an acquisition spree this year. In May Cisco bought MindMeld, a San Francisco-based startup that built a conversational AI platform for enterprises, for $125 million.

A couple of weeks before that, Cisco announced that it was paying $610 million to buy SD-WAN startup Viptela, and then three days later Cisco acquired key talent and technology from data analytics company Saggezza. Cisco also acquired AppDynamics in January this year in a deal worth $3.7 billion.

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