Cisco Buys Exablaze, Scores Ultra-Low Latency FPGA Tech

Cisco today said it reached a deal to buy Exablaze, a low-latency networking device maker, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition adds Exablaze’s field programmable gate array (FPGA) based devices to Cisco’s portfolio, which the networking giant says will boost its intent-based networking (IBN) strategy. Cisco today said it reached a deal to buy Exablaze, a low-latency networking device maker, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition adds Exablaze’s field programmable gate array (FPGA) based devices to Cisco’s portfolio, which the networking giant says will boost its intent-based networking (IBN) strategy. Cisco expects the acquisition to close by the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Some market segments in particular like high-frequency trading (HFT), financial services, high-performance computing, and emerging artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) clusters require extreme network capacity, flexibility, and speed, wrote Rob Salvagno, VP of corporate development and Cisco Investments, in a blog post about the acquisition. “In the case of the high frequency trading sector, every sliver of time matters,” he wrote. “By adding Exablaze’s segment leading ultra-low latency devices and FPGA-based applications to our portfolio, financial and HFT customers will be better positioned to achieve their business objectives and deliver on their customer value proposition.” Exablaze launched in 2013, and it has offices in Sydney, New York, London, and Shanghai. It sells its low-latency networking software, hardware, and firmware products to finance, telecommunications, and defense customers. In October, Exablaze beat the previous best STAC-T0 benchmark results with its ExaNIC FDK-XP (Firmware Development Kit Extension Pack). It slashed latency to less than half the earlier benchmarked best, recording actionable latencies of 31 to 44 nanoseconds. This latest acquisition follows Cisco’s soon-to-close $2.6 billion purchase of another hardware vendor, Acacia Communications. Acacia makes high-speed coherent optical interconnect products for webscale companies, service providers, and data center operators. And in an earlier interview with SDxCentral, Bill Gartner, SVP and GM of Cisco’s Optical Systems and Optics Group, said this technology will play a foundational role in Cisco’s intent-based networking. And it comes a week after Cisco unveiled its new silicon-software-optics strategy at an event in San Francisco. Exablaze “is another proof point that for Cisco, the value lies in its architecture: the combination of silicon, hardware, and software in the telco space,” said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research. Although the acquisition is a “niche play in financial services,” it’s a smart move because high-frequency trading and financial services is an area where Cisco has fallen behind, he added. “Arista had taken a pretty big chunk of that market, so I think they’ll be more competitive now.”