Cisco chases Tail-f in virtualisation push

Networking giant splashes out $175m on Swedish cloud and virtualisation outfit

Cisco has announced its intention to acquire Swedish virtualisation firm Tail-f as it looks to bolster its position in the space.

The networking giant plans to cough up $175m (£103.1m) for the firm when the deal closes, which is expected to happen by the end of its fiscal year in July.

Stockholm-based Tail-f claims to help network operators and service providers simplify their operations and replace traditional provisioning models – something it describes as network service orchestration.

Tail-f's staff will move over to Cisco's Cloud and Virtualisation Group upon completion.

Cisco said the buy will accelerate its cloud virtualisation strategy and help make life easier for its customers.

Its senior vice president of Cisco corporate development, Hilton Romanski, said: "The acquisition of Tail-f's network services configuration and orchestration technology will extend Cisco's innovation in network function virtualisation, helping service providers reduce operating costs and the time it takes to deploy new services, making agile service provisioning a reality."