The VAR Guy

Aiming to move further into the cloud infrastructure arena, Cisco is buying LineSider Technologies, which markets network management software to securely create and deploy cloud computing infrastructure.

The acquisition of LineSider will give Cisco another arrow in its quiver as it fills out its cloud computing ecosystem. LineSider’s technology, dubbed Overdrive, enables speedier provisioning of network services in virtual environments – one area Cisco had been lacking technology-wise.

Cisco expects the acquisition to close this quarter, at which time the company – and its employees – will be absorbed into Cisco’s Network Management Technology Group.

Cisco has been on a virtual (pun intended) roll in the cloud computing space over the past year, pounding the “borderless computing” message into all facets of its networking portfolio and even naming the company’s first CTO of Cloud Computing in June.

For Cisco’s channel community, such moves signal the company’s commitment to dominating the virtual data center as completely as it does the physical data center. What transpires at Cisco Partner Velocity next week will most certainly bear that out, but it’s a sure bet that the LineSider acquisition is the first of many that will fill the myriad holes in Cisco’s cloud computing strategy to build a truly end-to-end virtual network infrastructure worthy of the Cisco moniker.

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