Cisco to acquire broadband network monitoring firm SamKnows

Cisco is set to acquire London-based broadband network monitoring company Samknows, as the IT giant looks to further extend the capabilities of its ThousandEyes solution.

The firm says the combination of ThousandEyes and Samknows will accelerate the delivery of “exceptional connected experiences” over many more networks.

“In the last few years, hybrid work has dramatically expanded the role of broadband networks, and companies are increasingly dependent on these networks to connect customers and employees to applications and services,” said ThousandEyes co-founder and CEO Mohit Lad.

“Ensuring end-to-end connectivity from home environments is now essential for enterprises supporting remote employees, application providers reaching users, and broadband providers maintaining customer satisfaction.”

SamKnows provides deep visibility and insight into consumer broadband networks, which enables operators to see and improve network performance and application experience for customers.

As a result of its acquisition, Cisco’s end-to-end visibility platform ThousandEyes will gain expanded insight into broadband networks and performance through the millions of vantage points on home routers and mobile devices connected to ISPs around the world.

The addition will also bring ThousandEyes’ end-to-end network assurance to more broadband service providers, which will enable them to isolate and troubleshoot issues faster. The idea is to create a customer experience that reduces churn, attracts users, as well as enables them to better compete in the market, Cisco says.

Cisco did not disclose financial terms of the deal but revealed that the SamKnows team will join the company’s Network Assurance business led by ThousandEyes chief Mohit Lad.

“With the addition of SamKnows’ millions of vantage points into the last mile, customers now have a single source of truth for how the Internet is performing across their entire infrastructure, including home and mobile device networks,” commented Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager of the Cisco Networking team.

“Whether for hybrid work or consumer application delivery, optimizing and improving internet performance for everyone is just a click away.”

The move is Cisco’s second acquisition announcement in a week after the IT giant revealed its intent to acquire network performance monitoring partner Accedian, which the company says will also bolster ThousandEyes with Accedian’s deep service provider domain data. Accedian becomes part of Cisco’s Data Center and Provider Connectivity business, with the dataset to be leveraged by the ThousandEyes end-to-end assurance portfolio.