This week, Cisco took its first step into the software container market by announcing plans to buy ContainerX, a startup focused on management and integration of containers. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
ContainerX is based in California and offers a management product that claims to control containers running under Linux or Windows. Its first beta version was released in November 2015 and was generally available in June.
Cisco, through their blog said :
The ContainerX team has demonstrated strong technical expertise in developing enterprise-class container-management technology that works across a range of platforms.
With today’s announcement, the ContainerX and Cisco teams will work together to continue to develop a comprehensive cloud-native stack for our customers.
The acquisition is seen as an attempt by Cisco to enter a competitive container market. Currently, sales at Cisco are jeopardized by intense competition and changing trends in the cloud computing industry.
Kiran Kamity, co-founder and CEO of ContainerX said :
I write this note with a feeling of unfettered excitement coupled with gut-wrenching anxiety.
As with any acquisition, there are a few things we need to figure out as we join forces with Cisco.