Cisco to buy software company Cloupia

Cisco, the world\'s largest maker of computer networking equipment, on Thursday announced that it intends to buy software company Cloupia for about 125 million U. S. dollars. Cisco said in a press release that the purchase is expected to enhance its offering of data center solutions. A data center is a facility used to house computers, telecommunications and storage systems. Cisco has developed a strategy that focuses on providing unified data center infrastructure and leverages the benefits of cloud computing, which delivers computing resources over the network. In introductions posted on its website, Cloupia describes itself as a provider of data center and cloud computing automation and management software. Cisco said Cloupia\'s software will allow customers to seamlessly manage pools of computing resources as a unified whole and enable them to deploy and deliver information technology services more rapidly and at lower costs. Founded in 2009, the privately-held Cloupia is based in Santa Clara in the U.S. state of California. According to Cisco, the acquisition is expected to be closed in its current fiscal quarter which ends in January 2013.