5/31/2005 -- Cisco Systems Inc. last week pulled the trigger on still another acquisition, this time of application delivery management specialist FineGround Networks Inc.

According to officials, Cisco is ponying up approximately $70 million in cash and options for FineGround, which markets a line of network appliances that are designed to accelerate, secure and monitor application delivery. FineGround’s appliances use application delivery optimization techniques that help ensure bandwidth efficiency, decreased latency and server offload.

Cisco says it plans to integrate FineGround's technology with the rest of its technology stack, which could result in native IOS support for network application monitoring and application delivery acceleration.

“This acquisition further enhances Cisco's strategy to converge application acceleration, security and a highly available network infrastructure seamlessly in the data center,” said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Group, in a statement. “FineGround augments Cisco's leadership in content and security products enabling customers to accelerate application response time and minimize costs.”

Just what does Cisco believe FineGround brings to the table? Best-in-class application delivery management capabilities, for starters: Cisco says FineGround’s appliances can help customers improve end-user response times by up to five times, reduce application bandwidth usage by up to 90 percent, and reduce the load on servers by up to 90 percent.

Once the acquisition is complete, FineGround will become part of Cisco's Security Technology Group. CEO Nat Kausik will continue to lead the team. -Stephen Swoyer