Mergers & Acquisitions on Ulitzer

Cisco has bought another data virtualization company. This one's called Composite Software. It's better than 10-years-old, lives in San Mateo and went down for $180 million in cash and retention bonuses.

It software connects different kinds of data from across the network and makes it appear as if it's in one place. It integrates traditional and new data sources including the cloud and Big Data into a simplified consolidated view that can be used to make more informed decisions in real-time.

The operation will join the Cisco Services Platforms Group and report to Mala Anand.

Cisco said it will be used to connect data and infrastructure. It means to accelerate the shift from physical data integration to data virtualization.

"By combining our network expertise with the performance of Cisco's Unified Computing System and Composite's software," it said, "we will provide customers with instant access to data analysis for greater business intelligence."

It means to pair Composite with its recent process integration platform acquisition, SolveDirect, for cross-domain data and workflow integration capabilities in real-time. It apparently figures it'll be useful in banking.