Cisco sticks to its “build, buy, partner, and integrate” strategy

Cisco has expanded its product portfolio through acquisitions since 1993, with the acquisition of Ethernet switch maker Crescendo Communications. Since then, the company has grown by acquiring innovative companies rather than develop the technology from scratch. Cisco has invested $ 6.8 billion in acquisitions during the year 2013, and closed 13 strategic acquisitions.

The networking giant said in his presentation, will continue to address the need to develop new products and improve existing products through acquisitions of other companies, product lines, technologies and personnel. The approach of “build, buy, partner and integrate “is the heart of the culture of innovation at Cisco.

Cisco says on its website that segments of acquisitions into three categories: acceleration of the market, market expansion and new market access. The target company may carry different types of activities Cisco, including a great talent and technology, products and solutions mature or new - to-market and business models. Cisco seeks acquisitions particular with the potential markets billionaires. Acquisitions where there is not only a strong business case sought, but it is also a common vision of business and technology, and where the compatibility of values and culture to foster an environment of success.

CEO John Chambers said in 2011 that some of the recent acquisitions that served as milestones in the transition Growing market market including Cisco switching , Scientific Atlanta service provider market, WebEx collaboration and Web 2.0 categories, and " carried out in 2008 ' new Systems, which provides data center network equipment with high performance. An article last year in the blog site for the head of development said Hilton Romanski Cisco expanded into new markets, disruptive, such as editing, with the acquisitions of companies such as growing up, Grand Junction and granite.

 Subsequently, Cisco has extended to areas where major transitions remain active today , such as collaboration, mobility , data center and video offerings such as WebEx , Starent , Meraki , New and NDS .Cisco's strategy , which was announced by Chambers in 2011 , focuses on leadership in its core business (routing , switching, and associated services) , including security solutions and global mobility ; collaboration , including telepresence ; data center virtualization and cloud ; the video ; and architectures for business transformation .

In 2009, Cisco announced Unified Computing System and data center space that has been dominated by Hewlett - Packard (HPQ) and IBM (IBM). Your data center strategy was driven by the acquisition of Tidal Software for $ 105 million in April of 2009, which provides intelligent solutions for application management and automation. With the aim of developing technologies of virtualization and cloud data center innovation, the company has acquired Cloupia , a software company that automates converged data center infrastructure in 2012. Whiptail the acquisition is expected to strengthen in the past year strategy Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and improve the performance of applications by integrating a solid-state memory and scalable computer architecture of the UCS fabric.

Creating defined by the program (or SDN) spatial extensions include the integration of networks within networks vCider Together, who has experience in developing technology to superimpose virtual network infrastructure secure data center. also bought JouleX last year, improving the software-as- a-service offering of the company with the power management for infrastructure and enterprise data center networks. The news in 2012 stated that Cisco has been exceeded by VMware to acquire the network startup Nicira defined by the software. The acquisition has enabled VMware to launch its virtualization platform network called NSX last year. The space SDN has seen M & A in 2012, with the purchase of Juniper Networks Contrail systems, acquiring Brocade and Vyatta and Xsigo corente acquisitions by Oracle.

Significant acquisitions in cloud management include LineSider , newScale and Meraki , with mid-market customers easily implemented on-site network solutions that can be centrally managed from the cloud . In 2013, Cisco acquired Collaborate.com to help capture the transition of the mobility market and the cloud, and also bought SolveDirect and Composite Software, which provides software and services for data virtualization.

In terms of mobility, the acquisition Cariden , in 2012, supported by an open network of Cisco Environment ( ONE) strategy of providing sophisticated WAN (Wide Area ) orchestration capabilities of the network. Cisco acquired BroadHop , a provider of production services and technology management control policies for the network operators worldwide . Last year, Cisco has acquired Intucell , which provides advanced network self - optimization (SON ) software, which enables mobile operators to design , configure, manage , optimize and heal cellular networks automatically , based on the changes required in real-time of the network. Ubiquisys acquire $ 310 million in the UK further strengthened Cisco's commitment to service providers and strengthening their mobility experience. The technology provides Ubiquisys 3G and LTE (Long - Term Evolution) Intelligent small cells that provide seamless connectivity across heterogeneous networks to providers of mobile telephony services.

Cisco has expanded its security offering last year with the purchase of Cognitive Security, which focuses on taking cutting edge research in the field of network security and application of artificial intelligence techniques to detect advanced threats. In October, the acquisition of intelligent security solutions provider Sourcefire announced to defend the networks that goes beyond the traditional firewall and includes data centers, virtual and mobile endpoints to compensate for the extended network.

 The acquisitions of the past include Cisco ScanSafe , IronPort , and start Virtuata cloud security . The security space is seeing consolidation as Cisco and any other security companies have lost market share to upstarts like FireEye security ( Feye ) and Palo Alto Networks , Inc. ( PANW ) . He couples Security Palo Alto Red Red earnings call that has benefited from the acquisition and Sourcefire , " We were able to develop hundreds and hundreds of dissatisfied customers or potential customers confused Sourcefire . " Recently, the Internet heartbleed bug is said to have hit the products of the manufacturers of network equipment such as Cisco and Juniper.

In terms of video , Romanski said in the company blog that he delivered in Cisco Videoscape strategy based software architecture through a series of acquisitions well mapped , culminating with the acquisition of NDS $ 5 billion in 2012. NDS provides software solutions for the video service and content providers of security and media companies to securely deliver and monetize new video entertainment experiences. Open platform and standards-based Cisco Videoscape extends the cloud, the network and end-users and is a key part of the firm's overall strategy video for visual access to more content, mobile and social for consumers.
To deal with its rival Polycom ( Polycom ) , Cisco enhances its telepresence portfolio with the acquisition of a video communication Norwegian company Tandberg in 2009. Tandberg, which was the market leader in video conferencing at the time, has a portfolio of products including video terminal and network infrastructure solutions.

However, Cisco has not always been successful with their acquisitions and had to leave some of its unprofitable units. These include the acquisition for $ 590 million in 2009, Pure Digital Technologies, which made the Flip Video camcorder. The business was closed in 2011 as part of the restructuring, and media reports speculated that the product was competition from smartphones, including cameras. Cisco has also left the home networking market with the sale of Linksys, which was acquired in 2003, privately held Belkin last year. He also killed his Umi home video conferencing system in 2012, as part of its shift in focus to enterprises and service providers.