SAN JOSE, Calif., October 21, 2004 - In another move to address the increased threat and impact of worms and viruses to networked businesses, Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced its intent to acquire privately-held Perfigo, Inc., a developer of packaged network access control solutions that provide endpoint policy analysis, compliance, and access enforcement capabilities.
Perfigo's CleanMachines solution extends the offerings in Cisco's Network Admission Control (NAC) program, an industry-leading effort designed to enforce endpoint policy compliance and help customers implement self-defending networks. Perfigo enables organizations to intelligently provide trusted access to "clean" endpoints, thereby increasing the availability and integrity of customer networks and critical business applications.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $74 million in cash for Perfigo. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2005, which ends on January 29, 2005.
Perfigo's CleanMachines is a "shrink-wrapped" network admission control solution that recognizes users, their devices and roles; evaluates the security posture of the endpoint and scans for vulnerabilities; and enforces policy in the network. CleanMachines has shown great customer appeal in the Small-Medium Enterprise market and is widely deployed in educational institutions, where a turnkey solution is preferred.
"This acquisition further enhances Cisco's Self Defending Network security strategy of building and deploying proactive and advanced security into the network infrastructure," said Richard Palmer, Vice President in Cisco's Security Technology Group. "Security is at the top of the list when customers look for network solutions and Perfigo will provide our small and medium business customers secure, resilient, and intelligent networks."
With the addition of Perfigo's solution, Cisco offers the most comprehensive admission control portfolio in the information security market. CleanMachines' turnkey approach directly complements Cisco NAC, which leverages a systems architecture approach that is more appropriate for Enterprise customers. NAC provides a rich ecosystem with flexible APIs that allow multiple third-parties to contribute to the overall solution. In its first phase delivered in June 2004, NAC enables Cisco IOS Routers to enforce access privileges when an endpoint device enters a network. This decision can be based on information about the endpoint device such as its current anti-virus state and operating system patch level. Cisco has also announced that it plans to extend NAC support for Cisco Catalyst Switches and Cisco VPN Concentrators in the first half of 2005.
Cisco has licensed Perfigo's CleanMachines solution and will make it available to customers in October 2004. The Perfigo team will be integrated into Cisco's Security Technology Group.
