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$28B Cisco-Splunk Deal Positioned as an AI Play
Enterprise networking stalwart Cisco on Monday finalized its acquisition of data analytics firm Splunk for an estimated $28 billion.
In their respective announcements, the two companies described the deal as a vehicle to "power and protect the AI revolution." To fully take advantage of AI, they argued, enterprises need four things:
- The right infrastructure
- The right data
- A comprehensive security platform
- An observability solution to enable real-time monitoring and management
"Cisco will be able to do all four together," the networking giant said in a press release.
Splunk added, "With our combined solutions and services, we can ensure our customers are well positioned to win in the era of AI."
Splunk is known for its security and observability data platform, with its Splunk Enterprise Security product being a major player in the security information and event management (SIEM) space. Cisco, meanwhile, is a longstanding presence in the enterprise networking, telephony and collaboration markets, with additional offerings in IT security and infrastructure.
In this Cisco fact sheet about the acquisition, the two companies indicated they plan to integrate their respective AI capabilities to achieve two goals:
- Build upon existing platform capabilities, further enabling operations teams to focus on what matters most: minimizing tool sprawl, improving overall performance, and delivering highly secure digital experiences.
- Help customers unlock new use cases, drive efficiency, and realize the full human potential of their teams.
Added Splunk on its own fact sheet, "We will continue to focus our AI innovation on delivering the best outcomes for security and observability, while keeping humans in the loop. We will use this combination to accelerate our investments in AI designed to increase effectiveness and efficiency for security, IT and engineering teams."
Cisco and Splunk are hosting a webinar on April 4 to discuss the acquisition and its ramifications. In the meantime, the companies are promising business as usual for its joint customers, at least in the near term. To date, there have been no changes made to Splunk's leadership team, pricing models or support plans. Customers also should not expect service disruptions or immediate changes to their account managers or current service agreements.