Brocade acquires Vistapointe visibility and analytics solutions

Brocade has acquired the network visibility and analytics technology assets of privately held Vistapointe with offices in the US, Ireland, and India in an all-cash transaction. The Vistapointe technologies are software-based, carrier-grade network visibility and analytics solutions for mobile operators embracing Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architectures.

The acquisition enables Brocade to address the emerging opportunities and requirements of its service provider customers, especially global Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Through enhanced network visibility and analytics, these MNOs will be better equipped to classify, visualize, manage, and secure subscriber data traffic to deliver a superior user experience through real-time insights gained from network activity.

These capabilities will be essential for MNOs rolling out 4G/LTE technology across the billions of mobile devices deployed worldwide, led primarily by data networking requirements. This also establishes a firm technology foundation for MNOs as they begin the migration path to 5G technology in the coming years. The expected revenue for data traffic over mobile handsets will exceed $358 billion (USD) by 2018, representing the single largest source of revenue for MNOs over the next six years, according to industry research firm Analysys Mason.

In addition to enhancing the Brocade® NFV technology portfolio, the Vistapointe acquisition directly complements the existing Brocade MLX®-based IP telemetry solution to provide MNOs with an end-to-end network intelligence solution, from the network packet broker to analytics applications. With this transaction, the Vistapointe technologies are being incorporated into a new Network Visibility and Analytics group reporting into Jason Nolet, Vice President of the Switching, Routing, and Analytics products group, Brocade.

“With the massive growth in connected devices and the dominance of data in mobile networks, network visibility and analytics will be more important than ever. And, as mobile operators continue the aggressive pace at which they intend to adopt software networking solutions, they will benefit from complementary, NFV-based analytics tools to improve subscriber quality of experience and security while also dramatically reducing costs,” Nolet said. “The Vistapointe team has recognized the disruptive opportunity of leveraging NFV-based solutions for analytics, and we believe its technology is at the forefront of this space and perfectly aligned to the needs of mobile operators.”

Similar to the disruption NFV is creating at the infrastructure layer, the Vistapointe solutions virtualize analytic tools from the underlying custom hardware probes to deliver network visibility and analytics in a software form factor. The result is a solution that can leverage existing industry-standard x86 compute platforms and hypervisor technology to deliver real-time granular network visibility to mobile operators using software-centric networking strategies. The Vistapointe solutions enable customers to match their software infrastructure strategies with software-based intelligence solutions for maximum agility at a cost far lower than incumbent, hardware-based solutions.

“The Vistapointe acquisition affirms our commitment to SDN and NFV as a means to disrupt the status quo of the networking industry,” said Ken Cheng, CTO and Vice President of Corporate Development, Brocade. “We will continue to execute against a focused strategy that leverages M&A, strategic partnerships, open source communities, and organic innovation to deliver next-generation networking solutions that are open, virtual, and simple.”

As part of the transaction, Vistapointe CEO, Ravi Medikonda, has joined Brocade as Vice President of the Network Visibility and Analytics product group. Furthermore, Brocade has hired the Vistapointe development team, and they will report into Medikonda as part of the new business unit.