Cisco snaps up streaming-data start-up Perspica

Cisco has announced plans to acquire US-based start-up Perspica, a company that specialises in using machine learning to analyze streams of data.

According to the tech giant, terms of the acquisition will see the integration of Perspica technology into its AppDynamics product, which provides network and application monitoring and analytics.

One of the reasons it was attracted to Perspica is because of the company’s ability to monitor data in real-time, Cisco said.

Being able to process data as it's created or very soon afterwards can speed the time that end users are able to gain insights from the data, the vendor added.

“Perspica is known for its stream-based processing with the unique ability to apply machine learning to data as it comes in instead of waiting until it’s neatly stored,” said Bhaskar Sunkara, vice president of engineering, AppDynamics.

The acquisition of Perspica comes less than a year after Cisco purchased AppDynamics.

Cisco said AppDynamics’ detailed reporting capabilities of network and application activity is invaluable to emerging networking use cases, such as intent-based networking (IBN).

IBN uses a deep understanding of what’s happening in the network with advanced automation and orchestration tools to implement policies on the network and maintain the desired state of the network.

Cisco has said its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and AppDynamics combine to create an IBN for data centers. Perspica will be another component integrated into AppDynamics.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This article originally appeared on Network World.