Cisco finalises IronPort acquisition
Five months after original announcement of intent, networking and security giant signs IronPort deal
Cisco has completed its $830m acquisition of privately-held appliance vendor IronPort Systems.
The networking giant said the addition of IronPort's products will allow it to extend its Self-Defending Network strategy to include Wide Traffic Inspection capabilities which combines the depth of network-level security with the breadth of capabilities for inspecting email, web and instant messaging traffic.
As reported by CRN Online the firm will be operated as a separate unit within the main Cisco company (CRN, 11 January).
Richard Palmer, general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Group, said: "The acquisition of IronPort provides Cisco with a proven business that is already respected as a leader in the messaging and web security space. The addition represents the next chapter in the evolution of the Self-Defending Network and it accelerates Cisco's growth opportunities. Most important, it dramatically extends the solutions we can provide our customers as security threats and demands evolve."
Scott Weiss, former chief executive of IronPort and now general manager of the IronPort Business Unit, said: "IronPort is known for building industry-leading email appliances, but when we introduced our web security appliance last year, we realised the power of products working better together. Our email products are better because we have a web products and vice versa. Merging this technology into Cisco's Self-Defending Network portfolio creates even more powerful solutions for the market place."