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Cisco Acquires Replex; AppDynamics MSPs Gain Kubernetes Capabilities

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Cisco Systems is acquiring Replex, a developer of Kubernetes governance and cloud cost management software tools. MSPs that run AppDynamics appear poised to gain more full-stack observability capabilities and spend-management features. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is technology M&A deal number 669 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.

Cisco Acquires Replex: Business Background

Replex is a venture-funded startup that raised $4.15 million in seed money through 2019. The company raised additional funding in May 2021 led by Project A Ventures, through details from that round were not disclosed.

Replex's software is "designed to give more visibility into spending and to help optimize the container environment in the most economical way," the company wrote in a 2019 funding statement.

Replex, based in Germany, has 14 employees listed on LinkedIn. That team and the Replex technology will tuck into Cisco's AppDynamics Business Observability platform.

Cisco Acquires Replex: What Is Observability Software?

Linda Tong, general manager, AppDynamics, Cisco Systems
Linda Tong, GM, AppDynamics

AppDynamics competes against DataDog, Dynatrace, New Relic, SolarWinds and other software companies in the so-called Observability software market -- which could be the successor to traditional IT monitoring. According to Thundra: "Monitoring tells you when something is wrong, while observability enables you to understand why. Monitoring is a subset of and key action for observability. You can only monitor a system that’s observable."

In a blog about the Replex acquisition, AppDynamics General Manager Linda Tong wrote:

"The acquisition of replex will help AppDynamics grow its product and engineering talent with a view toward accelerating and expanding product capabilities that observe enterprise-scale, cloud-native environments. Replex’s deep expertise in Kubernetes, real-time data extraction and analytics will further strengthen AppDynamics’ world-class product and engineering team as we accelerate the delivery of Cisco’s Full-Stack Observability vision."

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.