Cisco announced it has completed its acquisition of privately held LineSider Technologies (News - Alert). Based in Danvers, Mass., LineSider Technologies provides network management software that helps customers build the network services necessary to securely create and deploy cloud computing infrastructure.

This acquisition, according to company officials, enhances Cisco's (News - Alert) ability to rapidly provision network services.

The network management software from LineSider Technologies is designed to enable customers to organize their network resources into a flexible cloud infrastructure that integrates the network with customers' existing IT operational tools and processes, according to company sources.

LineSider’s network abstraction layer allows customers to provision and deploy numerous individual network components much more quickly than previously possible, dramatically reducing network operations costs and accelerating service delivery, the company said.

Further, LineSider's unique policy-based approach automatically responds to pre-determined business scenarios and provides maximum performance across networking products and service delivery platforms.

Cisco adopted a partner-centric approach in the cloud computing space, and LineSider's technology strengthens Cisco's ability to work with a broad community of software partners, particularly within the service management space.

Further, the acquisition will also provide Cisco with the strength of an industry-leading team of engineers the company currently has. With the close of the acquisition, the LineSider team becomes part of Cisco's Network Management Technology Group (NMTG), the company said.

In another significant development, the National Hockey League (NHL) and Cisco extended their strategic partnership to feature Cisco technology solutions in key video-dependent areas such as hockey operations, business operations, marquee events and direct-to-consumer applications, TMCnet reported.