Nokia acquires network performance management company Deepfield

Nokia has announced plans to acquire Deepfield, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup that helps enterprises and cloud-service providers improve their network performance and security. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded out of Michigan in 2011, Deepfield is a privately held company that provides real-time big data analytics to clients around their IP network performance and security, insights that can also help identify DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

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Cloud-application services such as Netflix, Spotify, and Facebook represent a significant portion of network traffic globally, and network service providers benefit from insights into what applications are running and the impact the corresponding traffic is having across the spectrum. This is where Deepfield comes into play, as it identifies popular cloud services and tracks how their traffic flows through networks to the end-user. The analysis happens automatically, in real time, and the data can be used to help networks adapt to changes in traffic-flow patterns.

Basil Alwan, president of Nokia’s IP/optical networks business group, said in a press release:

We are impressed with Deepfield’s unique approach to network analytics and their deployments with major providers around the globe, delivering critical visibility into how leading cloud applications and services flow through their networks.

Combining Deepfield’s cutting-edge analytics with Software Defined Networking techniques (SDN) will allow our customers to automate engineering and assurance processes while enhancing performance, utilization, and security. We believe this capability will only increase in importance as networks and applications become more complex, diverse, and dynamic.

Nokia today consists of two core divisions — Nokia Technologies, a division focused on consumer-focused products, and Nokia Networks, a broadband network infrastructure business.

Nokia’s aspirations in the networking infrastructure realm are significant, and following its exit from the mobile phone business in 2014, Nokia snapped up French networking giant Alcatel-Lucent in a juicy $16.6 billion deal. And earlier this year, Nokia acquired Gainspeed, a company that specializes in Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) services for the cable industry, a notable move, given the growing need for network capacity ushered in with the rise of bandwidth-intensive media-streaming services.