Cisco may look like a big tech ocean liner, but there’s a shark swimming underneath – namely Cisco’s Security Business Group, which ate its third cyber firm this year when it dropped $452 million for Lancope, Inc.
The Cisco Security Group is still digesting a snack, Portcullis Computer Security, Ltd., a privately held UK-based consultancy that it acquired just last month. Earlier this year, the Cisco Security Group feasted on its biggest acquisition of the year when it spent $635 million for OpenDNS, a cyber threat protection vendor.
Cisco came on the radar as a potential security consolidator in 2013 with its $2.7 billion takeover of publicly held Sourcefire. It followed that takeover with a couple of smaller but strategic kills in 2014 when it gobbled up cyber advisory Neohapsis and malware analysis and threat intelligence vendor ThreatGRID.
Type in a search engine one of those old domain names, like sourcefire.com. What you see is Cisco’s threat-centric security product lineup. The company’s security categories include malware protection, network access and mobile security, network security and email security. The point solutions are listed under each category and represent where you should expect to see each new security acquisition.
Cisco’s Security Group has a healthy appetite for security companies.
Who’s next? Cisco plays in the data center, the cloud, and across the entire infrastructure. Then there’s the Internet of Things (IoT), a major market focus for Cisco.
The prediction is that Cisco goes on an all-you-can-eat cybersecurity binge in 2016, rounding out its product and services lineup to compete with IBM Security, Dell SecureWorks, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, FireEye and Palo Alto Networks.
Steve Morgan is founder and CEO at Cybersecurity Ventures and editor-in-chief of the Cybersecurity Market Report and the Cybersecurity 500 list of the world’s hottest and most innovative cybersecurity companies. Follow Steve on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.