Is the future of cyber security in the cloud? Cisco certainly thinks so.
Cisco announced on Thursday that it would purchase venture capital supported cyber security company, Duo Security. Under the terms of the deal, Cisco is buying the company for a cool $2.35 billion in cash as well as assumed equity awards.
In a press release, David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager of Cisco’s networking and security business, was quoted as saying, “In today’s multicloud world, the modern workforce is connecting to critical business applications both on- and off-premise. IT teams are responsible for protecting hundreds of different perimeters that span anywhere a user makes an access decision.”
Duo Security was founded in 2010 by Dug Song and Jonathan Oberheide. The company employs 700 people across its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, London, and other U.S. cities. It sells tools that help companies secure their online accounts including single log on functionality and two-factor authentication services. Through several funding rounds, the company has raised over $121 million.
Duo Security CEO Dug Song said in a statement, “Cisco created the modern IT infrastructure, and together we will rapidly accelerate our mission of securing access for all users, with any device, connecting to any application, on any network.”
As part of the deal, Song will continue to lead Duo Security as its General Manager and will join the team of Cisco’s Networking and Security arm which is led by GM and EVP, David Goeckeler. Song believes the acquisition of his company will allow him to reach a wide range of new customers with his services.
The new acquisition seems to be a perfect fit for Cisco as Duo’s SaaS-based model will be integrated into the ISE model of Cisco and used to provide application access control through the cloud. In a phone call with investors, executives from Cisco stated that the new purchase was part of the company’s strategy to offer better cloud security solutions for enterprises.
This is the largest acquisition for Cisco since January 2017 when it acquired App Dynamics for $3.7 billion. Cisco said the acquisition is expected to close in the next three months.
