Cisco To Acquire Machine-Learning Startup Perspica To Boost AppDynamics

Cisco Systems is diving deeper into machine learning, saying Thursday it plans to acquire startup Perspica in an effort to enhance its AppDynamics platform.

"With the addition of Perspica to our AppDynamics capabilities, customers will be able to further take advantage of machine-learning capabilities to analyze large amounts of application-related data, in real time and with business context, including when an application is deployed in a company's public, private and multiple cloud environments," said Rob Salvagno, vice president of Cisco Corporate Development and Cisco Investments, in a blog post.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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The privately held San Jose, Calif.-based startup provides stream-based processing and machine-learning technology that analyzes the increasing volume of data coming from IT systems, which complements Cisco's AppDynamics platform. Perspica said its offering provides visibility throughout the entire application infrastructure stack to deliver past, present and predictive analytics.

Salvagno said combining Perspica and AppDynamics technology will enable enterprises to filter crucial signals from the noise and drive their growth based on the digital streaming insight of their business. Perspica is led by CEO Dan Maloney, who has held top executive roles at SAP and AccelOps before joining the startup in 2015.

"The Perspica acquisition is another example of bringing the power of Cisco to accelerate AppDynamics' vision," said Salvagno. "[It's] an exciting step in our machine-learning capabilities, and allows us to continue to deliver our vision for helping companies with the future of digital business."

Cisco acquired AppDynamics, a provider of cloud application and business monitoring technology, in January for a whopping $3.7 billion. In August, AppDynamics launched its new Titan Partner Program, aimed at enabling the channel to drive more application and digital transformation sales.

Perspica's team will join Cisco's AppDynamics group, led by Senior Vice President and General Manager David Wadhwani within the Applications Group.