Cisco is buying Internet of Things cloud service Jasper for $1.4B

Cisco today announced plans to acquire Jasper Technologies, a company that offers a cloud service for managing Internet-connected devices, for a total of $1.4 billion.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a hot area for cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Intel, IBM, and other companies have initiatives in this area.

Cisco has been focusing on the area, and that makes sense, as data has to connect somehow. And data can flow from server to server through Ethernet cables connected with switches — and Cisco is the biggest provider of data center switches. Cisco Investments has backed the enterprise-oriented Alchemist Accelerator program to work with IoT startups.

“The proposed acquisition will allow Cisco to offer a complete IoT solution that is interoperable across devices and works with IoT service providers, application developers and an ecosystem of partners,” Cisco said in the statement on the deal. “Cisco will continue to build upon the Jasper IoT service platform and add new IoT services such as enterprise Wi-Fi, security for connected devices, and advanced analytics to better manage device usage.”

Jasper started in 2004 and is based in Santa Clara, California. The company has more than 3,500 customers, including AT&T, McDonald’s, SoftBank, Subaru, and Uber. Jasper raised a $50 million funding round in 2014. Investors include Temasek.

Jasper founder and CEO Jahangir Mohammed will report to Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s IoT and Collaboration Technology Group, according to the statement.

Recent Cisco acquisitions include Acano, MaintenanceNet, OpenDNS, ParStream, and Piston Cloud Computing.