SAN JOSE, Calif. – March 29, 2011 – Cisco today announced its intent to acquire privately-held newScale Inc., a leading provider of software that delivers a service catalog and self-service portal for IT organizations to select and quickly deploy cloud services within their businesses. Based in San Mateo, Calif., newScale allows commercial and enterprise customers to initiate the provisioning of their own systems and infrastructure on an as-needed basis.

"Cloud computing represents a major shift in the evolution of the Internet, and as more customers migrate from traditional IT infrastructures, the need for rapid self-provisioning and efficient management becomes increasingly critical," said Parvesh Sethi, senior vice president of Cisco Services.  "With the acquisition of newScale, Cisco will be able to accelerate the deployment of cloud services through a service catalog and self-service portal that allows customers to easily manage their IT infrastructures."

Cisco's cloud strategy is to harness the network as a platform for building and using clouds and cloud services.  newScale will complement and expand existing Cisco and partner software offerings in IT and cloud management and automation. Cisco remains committed to supporting flexibility and choice in management through a broad ecosystem of technology partners, and newScale delivers an additional option the company can provide to its customers.

Financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in the second half of Cisco's fiscal year 2011. Upon the close of the acquisition, the newScale team will report into Cisco's Advanced Services organization.