Cisco to add SamKnows broadband visibility to ThousandEyes

Cisco plans to acquire SamKnows and add its broadband monitoring technology to ThousandEyes. The acquisition is the second in less than a week to bolster the platform's growing network monitoring capabilities.

Cisco reported the SamKnows acquisition plans this week, saying it expects to complete the purchase in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, which begins Aug. 1. In the same time frame, Cisco expects to complete the Accedian acquisition that the networking company reported last week.

Cisco did not provide financial details for either deal.

Both privately held companies offer network performance monitoring to service providers. SamKnows monitors broadband connections, while Accedian provides communication service providers with a SaaS-based monitoring platform for their cloud and data center networks.

Cisco expects the acquisitions to increase the network visibility of the ThousandEyes platform, which monitors DNS resolution, browser response characteristics, details on network pathing and connectivity, routing status and VoIP connection quality.

The SamKnows One dashboard displays data from home routers and mobile devices connected to ISPs. The information helps to isolate and troubleshoot problems, Cisco said.

Besides some government agencies, SamKnows' customer base does not include enterprises. However, the company's data will help organizations monitor the internet connections of people working from home once Cisco integrates it into ThousandEyes, a company spokesman said.

Last week, Cisco said it would acquire Accedian to help carriers troubleshoot and fix private 5G network problems that could affect service providers' ability to maintain the quality of service stipulated in service-level agreements. Accedian's Skylight analytics SaaS includes machine learning technology that extracts intelligence from the billions of data points gathered from a service provider's network.

Private 5G networks for running gear that requires low latency in manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, and other industries are a growing enterprise market segment. The 5G and 4G/LTE enterprise wireless WAN will grow nearly 24% annually through 2027, when market revenue will reach $5.5 billion, according to IDC.

Cisco's focus on acquisitions that expand ThousandEyes' reach into enterprise and service provider networks is in line with market demand for more visibility across increasingly complex environments, said Bob Laliberte, an analyst at TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group.

"They're really trying to expand their scope of visibility and provide true end-to-end visibility, regardless of where those data points are -- data center, cloud or home," Laliberte said.

ThousandEyes is the Cisco hub for monitoring enterprise and service provider networks. For enterprises, Cisco has integrated many of its products with ThousandEyes, including access points, Catalyst switches and conference room devices.

Cisco has also integrated some of its software into the platform, including its software-defined WANs, the AppDynamics application performance monitor, and the DNA Center network management console for data center and campus networks.

Antone Gonsalves is networking news director for TechTarget Editorial. He has deep and wide experience in tech journalism. Since the mid-1990s, he has worked for UBM's InformationWeek, TechWeb and Computer Reseller News. He has also written for Ziff Davis' PC Week, IDG's CSOonline and IBTMedia's CruxialCIO, and rounded all of that out by covering startups for Bloomberg News. He started his journalism career at United Press International, working as a reporter and editor in California, Texas, Kansas and Florida. Have a news tip? Please drop him an email.