Cisco splashes out $1.2bn on cloud computing firm Meraki

Cisco is to splash out $1.2bn for mid-tier cloud computing provider Meraki in a move to boost its cloud service offerings to mid-sized firms.

Meraki, which has offices in San Francisco, New York, London and Mexico, offers its customers a variety of technologies including Wi-Fi, switching, security and mobile device management that can all be managed from the cloud.

By focusing on the mid-market Meraki has been able to carve a niche offering such services to firms that may otherwise not be able to afford moving to the cloud from their traditional on-premise systems.

Hilton Romanski, head of corporate business development at Cisco, said in a blog post that it had made the move for Meraki based on its strong customers base of 20,000 organisations based on its products aimed at key networking requirements.

"When compared to other opportunities, Meraki built a unique cloud-based business from the ground up that addresses the broader networking shift towards cloud, not just within wireless," he said.

"Meraki created a massively scalable architecture that offers easy to deploy, secure, and manage networks. They didn't obsess about the number of features, but instead focused on those that could be simplified or removed entirely."

Customers of Meraki include the likes of Burger King, retail outlets Next and East, and numerous education facilities such as the university of Virginia.

When the acquisition is completed, Meraki will form Cisco's new Cloud Networking group, and be led by the chief executive of Meraki, Sanjit Biswas.