In order to boost Cisco’s Security Everywhere Initiative, which is designed to bring security throughout the entire network; Cisco is planning to acquire OpenDNS: A cloud security company for $635 million in cash plus other considerations.

Founded in 2005, OpenDNS offers cloud security services by extending the Domain Name System (DNS) and using predictive intelligence to block botnets, phishing threats and malware that firewalls and antivirus miss. With its Umbrella service, OpenDNS has been a fixture in the MSP and IT service provider market and it is also a vendor member of the HTG Peer Groups.

David Ulevitch, Founder and CEO of OpenDNS , said “We believe we can move faster and with more impact by leveraging Cisco’s scale and resources in a way that we would be unable to do on our own or with any other partner.”

What Cisco expects to get from the acquisition of OpenDNS: A Cloud Security Company?

Hilton Romanski, Cisco’s Chief Technology & Strategy Officer, said in an interview “We’re going to continue to focus on deals that allow us to complement what we’ve done with Sourcefire in the area of intrusion prevention and we’ll continue to look at malware and other key verticals inside the security domain.”

According to a report, Cisco’s plan to acquire OpenDNS , a cloud security company will boost Cisco’s Security Everywhere Initiative by adding threat intelligence and broad visibility from the OpenDNS services. While announcing their plan, Cisco also pointed to what it calls the Internet of Everything (IoE), and others call the Internet of Things (IoT). Cisco also said that IoT is expected to reach nearly 50 billion devices by 2020 which will accelerate the potential for security breaches across the networks. To protect those networks from security breaches is a gigantic job that will require the right approach.