Cisco buys network security company Observable Networks
In an effort to bolster its offerings in the enterprise security space, Cisco has announced that it has acquired the company Observable Networks which provides real-time network behavior monitoring.
The terms of the deal have not yet been made public though Observable Networks value was estimated at around $16 million during its last round of funding in May of 2016.
The company was founded by Patrick Crowley (who is now its current CTO) in 2011 and him and the rest of its employees will be joining Cisco as part of the deal.
Crowley expounded on this in a blog post on Observable Networks' site, saying:
"Today, Cisco announced their intention to acquire Observable Networks. We view this as both a validation of our company’s realization of a big idea and an opportunity to take this big idea onto a bigger stage. We’re very excited about next steps with Cisco, the Security Business Unit and the Stealthwatch Product Team."
Cisco's decision to acquire the company is likely a result of the growing number of cyber attacks that have occurred in recent months. By using Observable Networks' technology alongside its own, the company can better detect anomalies related to security breaches and this would allow it to take action at a much faster rate.
In a blog post on its site, Cisco's Rob Salvagno offered details on how Observable Networks' solutions could be particularly useful in either a data centre or in a cloud environment, saying:
"Observable Networks’ technology is based on dynamic behavioral modeling of all devices on the network. Observable Networks’ solutions provide security analysts with the ability to gain real-time situational awareness of all users, devices and traffic on the network, whether in the data center or the cloud. Its cloud-native machine learning techniques for device modeling identifies insider and external threats faster and more accurately. This design supports cloud environments and enables turn-key activation for customers using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure."
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