Cisco's has announced plans to acquire Viptela and combine the San-Jose-based vendor's SD-WAN technology with its own efforts, moving further toward a software model that produces more reliably recurring revenue.
SD-WAN is emerging as this year's big networking, taking the fabric of software defined networking and turning it into an enterprise-focused product.
SD-WANs promise to redefine the way enterprises build and operate their wide area networks, making it easier to to hook up branch locations, data centers, and company headquarters with flexible infrastructure.
Cisco will be paying $610 million in cash and assumed equity awards for the acquisition. Viptela's talent will join the company's Enterprise Routing team, working with them to enhance Cisco's SD-WAN technology with their own. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2017.