Cisco Systems is set to acquire Isovalent, an open-source cloud-native networking and security solutions provider. This acquisition marks a pivotal step for Cisco in enhancing its secure networking capabilities across public cloud platforms.
Cisco did not reveal financial details of the deal.
The integration of Isovalent into Cisco’s framework is projected to bolster the Cisco Security Cloud vision, an AI-powered, cloud-based security platform designed to cater to businesses of diverse sizes and structures.
This union aims to enable customers to detach security controls from multicloud infrastructures, offering robust defense mechanisms against emerging threats across various cloud environments, applications, and workloads.
“With Isovalent, Cisco aims to leverage the open-source prowess of Cilium, creating an unparalleled multicloud security and networking capability. This collaboration seeks to simplify and expedite customers’ digital transformation projects,” Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco, said.
Isovalent, which has been recognized in the inaugural Fortune Cyber 60 awards, brings highly skilled team recognized for its contributions to the open-source technology eBPF. Their expertise has been instrumental in advancing Cilium, a cloud-native solution for networking and security.
The recent introductions by Isovalent, such as Cilium Mesh, Tetragon, an eBPF-based security solution, and Isovalent Enterprise, further solidify their commitment to innovating cloud-native networking and security solutions.
Stephen Augustus, Head of Open Source at Cisco, affirmed Cisco’s dedication to nurturing and investing in the eBPF and Cilium open-source communities. “Isovalent’s expertise will augment Cisco’s robust open-source governance and technical leadership, accelerating innovation in addressing intricate cloud-native, security, and networking challenges.”
Cisco plans to maintain and advance Isovalent’s suite of innovations for customers, including Isovalent Enterprise, while actively contributing to Cilium and Tetragon as open-source projects. The formation of an independent advisory board aligned with the needs of the open-source community is also on Cisco’s agenda to guide its contributions to these crucial initiatives.
Upon the acquisition’s closure, the Isovalent team will join the Cisco Security Business Group, slated for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024.
Isovalent says Google (GKE, Anthos), Amazon (EKS-A), and Microsoft (AKS) have all adopted Cilium to provide networking and security for Kubernetes.
Cilium is used by platform engineering teams such as Adobe, Bell Canada, ByteDance, Capital One, Datadog, Schuberg Philis, and Sky.
Isovalent is a globally distributed company with headquarters in both Cupertino (United States) and Zurich (Switzerland) and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Google, Cisco, M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), and Grafana Labs.
