Cisco heads to the cloud with Tropo buy

Cloud platform vendor's tech to help Cisco on its quest to make the Internet of Everything simple

Cisco has gobbled up cloud firm Tropo as it aims to make life easier for IT pros embracing the Internet of Everything (IoE).

The Californian company is privately held and provides businesses with a cloud platform which it claims makes it easier for their staff to communicate with each other and customers in real-time.

Cisco snapped the firm up for an undisclosed amount in a deal which is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

At its partner summit in Montreal last week, Cisco talked up the opportunity of IoE and said the trend would be a key focus for it in the future.

The networking giant today said together, it and Tropo will help customers embrace the trend.

"Helping people connect, engage and innovate on any device, Cisco and Tropo will provide a collaboration platform-as-a-service, which allows our customers and developers to create and sell new communications services with minimal development effort," said Cisco.

Tropo already has a 200,000-strong developer network, which Cisco said will help its service provider partners cash in.

"Tropo's technology will enable developers to build applications that integrate into the service provider's existing communications infrastructure, providing the service provider with an advantage over competitors and ways to generate new sources of revenue," Cisco added.

"With our laser focus on simplicity, it should come as no surprise that we've given lots of thought to real-time embedded communications. Given the market transitions of mobility, cloud, and IoE, companies are seeking simpler and faster ways to communicate-both internally and externally-from any device in real-time through the cloud."