Cisco’s latest acquisition is of Sedona Systems, which offers a multivendor, multi-layer network controller for automation of the optical and packet transport layers. The smaller company’s NetFusion controller will be added to Converged SDN Transport platform.
No price was disclosed for the deal, but Israeli media reported that Cisco had paid about $100m. Although Sedona is headquarted in California, it has most of its R&D activities in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded in 2014 and had raised about $20m in funding to date, with Intel Capital leading its second round, worth $13.6m, in 2016.
Sedona’s NetFusion hierarchical controller enables operators to automate configuration, provisioning and activation of the optical and packet layers and it has won considerable operator support, with Verizon as its flagship customer. Cisco said NetFusion is “the brain that enables transformation like 5G network slicing, routed optical networking, and disaggregation. The Sedona NetFusion platform is the first to deliver complete network abstraction and control, allowing CSPs to manage their networks across domains, vendors, layers, and a myriad of different technologies, all as one single network.”
Cisco will need to reassure current and potential operator customers that it will keep NetFusion fully vendor neutral. Like its close competitor, Ciena’s Blue Planet, the product is integrated with technology from all the major optical and IP networking vendors, including Nokia, Huawei, Infinera, Ciena, ADVA, Fujitsu, Juniper and Cisco itself.
NetFusion will sit next to Cisco’s Crosswork automation solution as part of the Converged SDN Transport architecture, which also includes its Routed Optical Networking Solution for integrated optical and IP). “Cisco Crosswork and Sedona NetFusion provide a real time replica of the entire network to predictively manage any changes to the deployment, connectivity, and activation status of all network inventory. Operators can preview optimization, assurance, and changes, and then commit them as needed,” wrote VP of product management at Cisco, Kevin Wollenweber, in a blog post about the deal.
The Sedona deal will also complement Cisco’s recent acquisition of optical networking vendor Acacia for $4.5bn. That added Acacia’s pluggable transceivers to Cisco’s own development of custom silicon for switching and routing through its Silicon One family.