Cisco has signed an agreement to acquire solid-state memory system company Whiptail for approximately USD 415 million to enhance its Unified Computing System (UCS). Scalable from 1 to 30 nodes, Whiptail systems can deliver over four million IOPS and 360 Terabytes of raw capacity to help Cisco provide the workload optimisation required in the 'App Economy'.
Cisco is enhancing the UCS by bringing solid-state memory acceleration into the compute tier as a managed subsystem. It describes Whiptail as a perfect architectural fit for UCS because together the two combine a clustered architecture with fabric-based acceleration, all of which is automatable via the UCS Manager and UCS Director.
Under the terms of the deal, Cisco will pay some USD 415 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of the New Jersey-based privately-held company. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of October, subject to customary closing conditions.
