Cisco buys Internet BGP monitoring firm Code BGP

Aiming to bolster its assessment of Internet traffic health, Cisco has acquired Code BGP, a privately held BGP monitoring startup, for an undisclosed amount.

Code BGP will slide into Cisco’s ThousandEyes network intelligence product portfolio and bring a cloud-based platform that, among other features, maintains an inventory of IP address prefixes, peerings and outbound policies of an organization via configured sources, like BGP feeds. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) tells Internet traffic what route to take, and the BGP best-path selection algorithm determines the optimal routes to use for traffic forwarding.

Then, the system lets customers see and interact with this inventory in real-time through an open API and bring real-time detection of BGP hijacking, route leaks, and other BGP issues according to the company. Adding such capabilities will let ThousandEyes further expand its BGP monitoring and incident analysis capabilities to maintain health of the Internet as well as key applications and services, according to Joe Vaccaro vice president of products for Cisco’s ThousandEyes in a blog about the acquisition. 

Cisco bought ThousandEyes in 2020 and has implemented the company’s cloud-based Internet Insights software package across its product portfolio.  Most recently Cisco said ThousandEyes technology would be a key part of its Full Stack Observability platform which is designed to collect and correlate data from application, networking, infrastructure, security, and cloud domains to provide a clear view of what’s going on across the enterprise and make it easier for enterprises to spot anomalies, preempt and address performance problems, and improve threat mitigation.

“BGP is an essential technology that enables the Internet to function,” Vaccaro wrote.   “However, the complex nature of BGP makes detecting and troubleshooting incidents difficult—particularly at the scale at which they occur,” Vaccaro stated. 

This year alone, more than 6,000 incidents of BGP hijacks, route leaks, and other issues occurred across the many thousands of networks that make up the Internet, Vaccaro stated. 

“Navigating these incidents requires quick detection and remediation to avoid downtime and protect users, making BGP visibility an essential capability for organizations that rely on the Internet to connect customers, employees, and business systems to applications and services,” Vaccaro stated. 

The CodeBGP buy is Cisco’s fourth since June and its eighth this year.  Most recently it announced its intention to acquire security startup Oort for an undisclosed amount. Oort offers an identity threat detection and response platform for enterprise security. 

Cisco also recently announced plans to acquire privately held broadband-network monitoring company SamKnows for an undisclosed amount.

SamKnows uses a global network of software agents dispersed among home systems, mobile devices and service provider networks, for example, to get a real-time measurement of internet performance and customer experience. Through a central dashboard, the company can analyze the results, spot faults, and identify the root cause of problems to help with remediation.

Another fresh deal is Cisco’s planned acquisition of Accedian Networks for an undisclosed price. Accedian’s performance analysis and monitoring platform – aimed at mobile backhaul, data center services, service providers and cloud connectivity customers – provides network visibility, diagnoses problems and recommends remediation.

Cisco’s other acquisitions this year include Armorblox for large language models, Smartlook for mobile application monitoring, Lightspin for cloud security, and Valtix for cloud network security.