Composite Software Acquisition Highlights Cisco's Connected Future

Cisco has unveiled plans that it will acquire San Mateo, California-based Composite Software, which is a data virtualization software and services company. Cisco is closing the software gap and is taking one step towards a broader Cisco future, according to some VARs.

PCM Inc. is an El Segundo, California-based solution provider, and vice president and regional CTO of the company, Phil Mogavero, stated "This is exactly what I hoped to see from Cisco."

Earlier this month, Cisco hosted its Partner Summit Conference in Boston, and Mogavero was one of more than 2,000 partners present. A lot of the focus during the summit was on the company's "Internet of Everything," which looks towards cloud computing.

Mogavero said: "To me, the missing piece from Cisco's story was software and acquisitions to make Cisco more relevant in the software space. My guess is [this acquisition] is something they had targeted to be able to take data and centralize it."

Westron Communications is a Frisco, Texas-based solution provider, and the company's principal, Dave Casey, said: "It's not surprising. They haven't played too much in the business intelligence space, so I think that's probably a good move for them."

Executives at the company have been outspoken in regard to keeping up-to-date with the future of technology.

In a statement, Cisco said: "Big data and cloud are drastically changing today's IT landscape. The proliferation of traditional and new data sources plus the movement of data to the cloud complicates the ability to access all data assets. This creates the need to complement traditional data warehousing with an agile business solution that provides a real-time, consolidated logical view of data."

A number of different types of data from the network can be collected by Composite Software, and this can be collected into one, organized space. According to Cisco, technology must allow customers to see the most up-to-the-minute data and ensures that business executives will be able to make the most informed decisions they can.

Robyn Jenkins Blum, a spokesperson at Cisco, said that the deal is expected to be completed in Q1 of 2014, which starts in August.

Lumenate is a Dallas, Texas-based solution provider, and the vice president of that company, Jay Kirby, noted that Cisco's move towards software and virtualization will be advantageous to channel partners as long as acquisitions remain strategic. Kirby said: "The key is to make good investments, not a lot of investments. It could get really confusing if we get too many technologies out there."

Mogavero added: "Acquiring companies with expertise around big data helps Cisco be much more relevant in that space. I think this acquisition is a great thing for Cisco and for partners."

Cisco, during its Partner Summit, touted the theme: "Today. Tomorrow. Together." Executives of the company highlighted the fact that large growth can be expected from the company, and would not leave partners behind. Cisco is keen to make the move towards the cloud and beyond like an ecosystem, and states that its partners will be a large part of that.

Cisco CEO John Chambers summarised towards the end of the Partner Summit that the moves that Cisco would be making were representative of a transition towards a more connected ecosystem.

He said: "Change makes most people really uncomfortable, and yet we are talking about a partner ecosystem that we have to navigate through very carefully, knowing that each move we make in services, or each move we make in Internet of Everything, we have to say, 'How do we do it together?' and trust each other that we are going to work through this transition."

It can be presumed that the Cisco acquisition of Composite Software is one aspect of change which Chambers was referring to during the conference. (CY) Link