Cisco to Acquire Ultralow Latency Networking Company Exablaze

Networking major Cisco will be acquiring Exablaze, an Australia-based company that designs and builds advanced networking gear based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The privately held Exablaze provides solutions for businesses that need ultra-low latency networking, with a special emphasis on high-frequency trading. Its next-generation products include advanced ultra-low latency FPGA-based switches and network interface cards (NICs), and Terminal Access Point aggregation packet brokers.

Founded in 2013, Exablaze has offices in Sydney, New York, London and Shanghai. While financial trading is an obvious application for its solutions, the company also notes that it has users in the big data analytics, high-performance computing and telecom space.

According to the company, the acquisition will complement Cisco’s networking portfolio and play a key role in the delivery of next generation platforms for low-latency applications. The addition of Exablaze to Cisco’s Nexus switching portfolio will complement its current switching technology with the FPGA-based layer-1 capable switches and ultra-low latency NICs. “Together Cisco and Exablaze will accelerate next generation switch platforms, and further create potential synergistic opportunities in emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) segments,” a company release stated.

“By adding Exablaze’s segment leading ultra-low latency devices and FPGA-based applications to our portfolio, financial and HFT customers will be better positioned to achieve their business objectives and deliver on their customer value proposition,” Cisco’s Vice President for Corporate Development and Investments Rob Salvagno stated in his blog.

He further said, “Cisco is committed to delivering best of breed platforms as the foundation of our Intent-Based Networking strategy. Together, Cisco and Exablaze will accelerate next generation low latency solutions for Intent-Based Networks.”

The company also highlighted that Exablaze products provide scaleout capabilities that are designed to seamlessly expand and adapt to meet a wide variety of requirements that include next-generation applications in high-frequency trading (HFT), AI, ML, high-performance computing, datacenter, cloud and edge computing, and service providers.