Cisco announced plans to purchase newScale, a software company that provides self-service, service catalog, and lifecycle management software for enterprise IT. NewScale allows commercial clients to quickly deploy cloud services within their businesses and easily provision their own systems.
There is a clear and apparent need for corporations to improve cost containment and increase agility of their systems. This self service model potentially helps meet both needs.
The NY Times noted that there is a marked rise in M&A for cloud service and product companies. They also stated that although Cisco has been quite active with M&A, they have not made a lot of purchases within the cloud sphere--preferring to build their own instead of buying cloud infrastructure and systems.