Cisco and OpenDNS – The Name Of The Game?
This morning, Cisco announced their intent to acquire OpenDNS, a security-as-a-service (SaaS) provider based around the idea of using Domain Naming Service (DNS) as a method for preventing the spread of malware and other exploits. I’ve used the OpenDNS free offering in the past as a way to offer basic web filtering to schools without funds as well as using OpenDNS at home for speedy name resolution when my local name servers have failed me miserably.
This acquistion is curious to me. It seems to be a line of business that is totally alien to Cisco at this time. There are a couple of interesting opportunities that have arisen from the discussions around it though.
Internet of Things With Names
The first and most obivious synergy with Cisco and OpenDNS is around Internet of Things (IoT) or Internent of Everything (IoE) as Cisco has branded their offering. IoT/IoE has gotten a huge amount of attention from Cisco in the past 18 months as more and more devices come online from thermostats to appliances to light sockets. The number of formerly dumb devices that now have wireless radios and computers to send information is staggering.
All of those devices depend Continue reading