Data Center

Cisco Buys Hyperconvergence Software Company Springpath

The $320 million acquisition will bolster Cisco's position in the fast-growing market for hyperconverged infrastructure.

Phil Goldstein

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Phil Goldstein is a former web editor of the CDW family of tech magazines and a veteran technology journalist. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and their animals: a dog named Brenna, and two cats, Grady and Princess.

Cisco Systems is getting further enmeshed in the market for hyperconverged infrastructure and announced on Monday that it will buy hyperconvergence software startup Springpath for $320 million. The deal is expected to close this quarter.

Hyperconverged platforms combine computing, storage, networking and virtualization capabilities into a single appliance, all pre-integrated and controlled by one management layer. Springpath's technology includes a distributed file system purpose-built for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems, Cisco notes in a press release. IDC says the hyperconverged infrastructure market grew 64.7 percent year-over-year during the first quarter of 2017, generating $665.1 million worth of sales. The research firm expects the market to reach $6 billion by 2020.

Cisco has invested in and partnered with Springpath, and their collaboration led to rollout last year of Cisco's HyperFlex solution. “By co-engineering Springpath’s software with the Cisco Unified Computing System, we have delivered a fully integrated platform with HyperFlex and innovation at all layers of the data center stack,” Rob Salvagno, head of corporate development and Cisco investments, says in a company blog post. “This provides customers with the convenience and benefit of getting all the HyperFlex software and hardware from a single vendor.”

The deal comes after Hewlett-Packard Enterprise acquired hyperconverged infrastructure specialist SimpliVity earlier this year for $650 million.