Cisco pays cool $2.3 billion for hot security company Duo

Cisco today laid out $2.35 billion in cash and stock for network identity, authentication security company Duo.

According to Cisco, Duo helps protect organizations against cyber breaches through the company’s cloud-based software that verifies the identity of users and the health of their devices before granting access to applications with the idea of preventing breaches and account takeover.

A few particulars of the deal include:

• Cisco currently provides on-premises network access control via its Identity Services Engine (ISE) product. Duo’s software as a service-based (SaaS) model will be integrated with Cisco ISE to extend ISE to provide cloud-delivered application access control.
• By verifying user and device trust, Duo will add trusted identity awareness into Cisco’s Secure Internet Gateway, Cloud Access Security Broker, Enterprise Mobility Management, and several other cloud-delivered products.
• Cisco’s in-depth visibility of over 180 million managed devices will be augmented by Duo’s broad visibility of mobile and unmanaged devices.

Cisco said that Integration of its network, device and cloud security platforms with Duo Security’s zero-trust authentication and access products will let customers to quickly secure users to any application on any networked device. In fact, about 75% of Duo’s customers are up and running in less than a week, compared to six to 12 months for comparable products. This focus on customer success has led to over 12,000 customers, including over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies, wrote Rob Salvagno, Cisco vice president of  Corporate Business Development in a blog about the buy.

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