Based in Santa Clara, Calif, Cloupia is a software company that automates converged data center infrastructure -allowing enterprises and service providers to speed the deployment and configuration of physical and virtual infrastructure from a single management console. Together, Cisco and Cloupia will extend the converged management benefits of the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager and UCS Central beyond compute to include server, network, storage, and virtualization functions, simplifying the IT administrator's operations and improving overall reliability in system deployment.

With the introduction of the Unified Computing System in 2009, Cisco has led the industry in moving towards converged infrastructure solutions that are managed as a whole system instead of individual components. Unfortunately, many IT administrator tools still only solve part of the puzzle, leaving much of their work reliant on tedious manual operations. Cisco alleviates the complexity in the evolution to cloud based IT service delivery by unifying infrastructure and allowing it to be managed as a whole.  Cisco data center products allow IT administrators to rapidly provision applications across bare-metal and virtual environments and manage their entire lifecycle through automated processes based on policy.

Cisco's acquisition of Cloupia benefits Cisco's Data Center strategy by providing single "pane-of-glass" management across Cisco and partner solutions including FlexPod, VSPEX, and Vblock. Cloupia's products will integrate into the Cisco data center portfolio through UCS Manager, UCS Central, and Nexus 1000V, strengthening Cisco's overall ecosystem strategy by providing open APIs for integration with a broad community of developers and partners.

Similar to previous acquisitions in cloud management, such as Tidal, LineSider and NewScale, the acquisition of Cloupia also complements Cisco's Intelligent Automation for Cloud (IAC) solution.

Mergers, acquisitions and investments are a key part of Cisco's build, buy, and partner innovation framework and supports our strategy of providing best-in-class solutions for customers. The Cloupia acquisition aligns to Cisco's strategic goals to develop innovative data center, virtualization, and cloud technologies, while also cultivating top talent. The Cloupia team will join Cisco's Data Center Group led by David Yen, senior vice president.

As we continue to use all of Cisco's assets to drive innovation, acquisitions such as Cloupia will help bring additional expertise, new technology, and unique business models into Cisco. The Cloupia acquisition reinforces Cisco's commitment to deliver an intelligent network by providing market leading infrastructure across the data center.