Cisco to acquire Ensoft to accelerate network infrastructure optimisation

Multinational tech firm Cisco Systems has announced its intention to purchase English software company Ensoft as part of its plans to streamline service provider networks

Rob Salvagno, Head of Corporate Development and Cisco Investments at Cisco, said in a 21 November blog post that Ensoft’s software solutions will accelerate the automation and programmability of network infrastructures.

“Ensoft brings a strong talent pipeline to Cisco, adding a high-performance team to augment Cisco’s ongoing innovation in networking software,” said Salvagno.

“We look forward to welcoming Ensoft employees to Cisco’s Service Provider Networking Group led by Senior Vice President and General Manager Sumeet Arora.”

He added that Ensoft was the top software company in the Sunday Times’ 2018 100 Best Small Companies to Work For rankings, and that Cisco anticipates the acquisition will be completed during Q2 2019.

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Neither Cisco nor Ensoft has disclosed the value of the transaction as yet.

According to Computer Business Review (CBR), Ensoft has previously described itself as “highly profitable”, with annual revenues of around £10mn.

“Cisco’s networking software strategy is centered on enabling simplified, scalable, trusted, and automatable IP network infrastructure,” Salvagno said.

“Innovation in unified transport and service layers with Segment Routing (SR) and Ethernet Virtual Private Networks (EVPN) is accelerating evolution of mass-scale IP infrastructure embedded with programmability and automation.”