Cisco has completed its acquisition of Splunk, having received approval from the EU antitrust regulator.
With the purchase of Splunk safely past the EU watchdog’s inspection, Cisco believes it is now in a position to build “unparalleled” visibility and insights into its portfolio.
The US technology corporation Cisco previously agreed to acquire Splunk for $28BN in September last year.
Splunk’s platform powers security and observability solutions by processing data from the cloud, data centers, or third-party tools at scale.
The European Commission explained that Cisco’s acquisition of Splunk was not a threat to competitors:
The Commission concluded that the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active, as there is a sufficient number of alternative players.
The regulator also said that the newly combined organization would not be able to prevent rivals from competing for business.
Splunk ‘Supercharges’ Cisco
Cisco outlined the various ways in which Splunk will help to ‘supercharge’ its business for customers, partners, and developers.
Splunk, it says, will bring better security, observability, networking, AI, economics, as well as partner applications and solution packages.
Cisco’s security offering will be improved as it will be able to offer customers a comprehensive security solution for threat prevention, detection, investigation, and response using network, cloud, and endpoint traffic to provide “second-to-none” visibility.
It will also be able to offer a full-stack observability solution across multi-cloud hybrid environments.
A new and improved networking solution is soon to be available that will include an intelligent, resilient, and routinely optimised network infrastructure.
Customers will be able to safely implement AI through their organization with Cisco’s networking portfolio, greater security, full stack observability, and its data platform.
Business economics will make more sense, too, according to Cisco, as the joint platform will enable customers to consolidate products, resulting in reduced costs and better outcomes.
Cisco and Splunk will also combine developer and partner communities to create new packages containing apps and solutions that will allow customers to add new high-value services and revenue streams.
Cisco says it is planning to put everything it has into creating a real-time unified view of digital landscapes, enabling teams to protect critical infrastructure, prevent outages, and enhance network experience.
Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco, also took the opportunity to affirm its commitment to AI as part of his welcome message to Splunk: “We are thrilled to officially welcome Splunk to Cisco.
“As one of the world’s largest software companies, we will revolutionise the way our customers leverage data to connect and protect every aspect of their organisation as we help power and protect the AI revolution.”
Cisco revealed that a number of new products will be integrated with Splunk over the coming months. Many of these will be showcased at Cisco Live on June 2 – 4, 2024, and .conf24 between June 11 – 14, 2024.
