Cisco is acquiring Epsagon, a provider of distributed tracing solutions for applications and technologies, including containers and serverless environments.

Epsagon will play a key role in expanding and accelerating Cisco’s comprehensive full-stack observability strategy. According to Globes, Cisco is shelling out $500 million for Epsagon.

Liz Centoni is Cisco‘s executive vice president, chief strategy officer and general manager of applications.

Cisco’s Liz Centoni

“Epsagon’s technology and talent align well with Cisco’s vision to enable enterprises to deliver unmatched application experiences through industry-leading solutions with deep business context,” she said.

When the acquisition closes, the Epsagon team will join Cisco’s strategy, incubation and applications group.

Cisco’s Full-Stack Observability Approach

A Cisco spokesperson tells us Cisco’s approach to delivering full-stack observability starts with its core SaaS solutions. Those include AppDynamics, ThousandEyes and Intersight.

“Epsagon’s talent and technology will complement Cisco’s work on full-stack observability for cloud-native environments, across multiple telemetry types including metrics, events, logs and traces with support for open standards,” the spokesperson said. “These demonstrated abilities, particularly distributed tracing, with an eye toward monitoring and troubleshooting cloud-native workloads in real time, will accelerate Cisco’s roadmap of capabilities for full-stack observability.”

Cisco has always pursued growth through a strategy of acquisitions, investments, internal innovation and partnering relationships, the spokesperson said.

“Delivering the best full-stack observability portfolio of products to our customers will continue to be a priority and we will be aggressive in how we support this important area for customers be it with internal innovation, acquisitions, investments and or partnering relationships where appropriate,” the spokesperson added.

Anexinet Acquiring Cisco Partner

Also this week, Anexinet announced its upcoming acquisition of Cisco partner Light Networks. The acquisition will allow Anexinet to leverage its artificial intelligence (AI), process automation and digital solutions alongside Light Networks’ UCaaS, CCaaS and network/telecom solutions to elevate digital interactions for their customers, employees and partners.

Anexinet didn’t say how much it paid for Light Networks.

Light Networks’ specific customer experience and workplace modernization solutions are complementary to Anexinet’s core solutions.

Brian Glahn is Anexinet‘s CEO.

Anexinet’s Brian Glahn

“The acquisition of Light Networks, following our acquisition of SereneIT in Atlanta, demonstrates Anexinet’s rapid growth trajectory and commitment to best-of-breed, innovative solutions for our clients,” he said. “The company’s engineering-led approach will expand Anexinet’s portfolio with unique voice, video and collaboration capabilities, while also significantly adding depth to our networking abilities with Cisco engineering expertise.”

Light Networks will expand Anexinet’s footprint in the southeastern United States.

Robby Paul is Light Networks‘ co-founder.

“Anexinet’s methodology and client-first culture is perfectly aligned with our culture, making them an ideal partner,” he said. “We are excited to combine our contact center and collaboration expertise with Anexinet’s digital transformation and automation/AI capabilities.”