Cisco plans to incorporate Luxtera’s technology across its intent-based networking portfolio, spanning enterprise, data centre and service provider markets.
“As system port capacity increases from 100GbE to 400GbE and beyond, optics plays an increasingly important role in addressing network infrastructure constraints, particularly density and power requirements,” comments Rob Salvagno, head of Cisco’s M&A and venture investment team. “The combination of Cisco’s and Luxtera’s capabilities in 100GbE/400GbE optics, silicon and process technology will enable customers to build future-proof networks optimised for performance, reliability and cost.”
“With Cisco’s 2018 Visual Networking Index projecting that global Internet traffic will increase threefold over the next five years, our customers are facing an exponential demand for Internet bandwidth,” adds David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager, Networking and Security Business at Cisco. “Optics is a fundamental technology to enable this future. Coupled with our silicon and optics innovation, Luxtera will allow our customers to build the biggest, fastest and most efficient networks in the world.”
Cisco will pay $660 million in cash and assumed equity awards for the acquisition of Luxtera. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2019.
Luxtera employees will join Cisco’s Optics business and report into Goeckeler.
Says Salvagno, “Internet traffic has grown dramatically over the past two decades and is only going to accelerate. More traffic will be created in 2022 than in the 32 years since the internet started, according to Cisco’s recent VNI Forecast. This traffic is coming from people, machines and the way we use the internet. By 2022, 60% of the global population will be internet users and more than 28 billion devices and connections will be online.”
“With this environment as the backdrop, our customers are looking to address the unrelenting demand for more bandwidth driven by an emerging class of distributed cloud, mobility, and IoT applications,” continues Salvagno. “Simply put, the exponentially growing demands on the network require a new era of networking.”
He adds, “While much of the recent focus has been on our software transition, it goes without saying that world-class hardware, coupled with our investment in silicon and optics, is at the heart of our Intent-Based Networking strategy, enabling networking and security at scale powered by analytics. We look forward to welcoming the Luxtera team to Cisco.”