Cisco has made a deal to acquire privately held Composite Software, a data virtualization software and services company, for about US$180m in cash.

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Composite provides software technology that connects many types of data across the network and makes it appear as if it is in one place. Its software integrates traditional and new data sources, including cloud and big data, into a simplified consolidated view.

Cisco expects to close the acquisition in the first quarter of fiscal 2014.

Composite will expand Cisco's portfolio of Smart Services and extend its services platform by connecting data and infrastructure, Cisco said. The connection will enable companies to better leverage network knowledge (APIs) and programmability.

Gary Moore, Cisco president and COO, said, “Cisco's strategy is to create a next generation IT model that provides highly differentiated solutions to help solve our customers' most challenging business problems. By combining our network expertise with the performance of Cisco's Unified Computing System and Composite's software, we will provide customers with instant access to data analysis for greater business intelligence.”

The acquisition builds on Cisco's framework for a unified platform and its software services strategy. Within that strategy, the company recently acquired SolveDirect.

Composite's data virtualization solution combined with SolveDirect's process integration platform will provide cross-domain data and workflow integration capabilities, Cisco said.