Continuing its efforts to expand its expertise in software-defined networking, Brocade (News - Alert) is acquiring virtualization startup Vyatta in an all-cash transaction. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Brocade’s outgoing CEO Mike Klayko (News - Alert) explains that Vyatta would complement the investments Brocade has already made in Ethernet fabrics and SDN, bolstering the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s so-called build and partner efforts.

“This acquisition complements our R&D investments in Ethernet fabrics and SDN, as well as our broad industry and solutions-level partnerships that enable Brocade to pursue new market opportunities in data center virtualization, public cloud, enterprise virtual private cloud, and managed services,” Klayko elaborated in a statement.

Software defined networking is a disruptive technology that is creating an opportunity for companies such as Brocade to gain market share among large enterprises, service providers, data center hosting providers and cloud computing providers, according to Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager of Brocade’s IP Products Division.

“Brocade has been pursuing this opportunity with an aggressive R&D roadmap that has already resulted in a number of innovation breakthroughs,” Cheng said in a blog post this week. “For example, we were the first networking company to introduce support for OpenFlow technology at 100 Gigabit Ethernet performance and true ‘hybrid mode’ support for OpenFlow that enables our customers to run this SDN technology concurrently over their production IP networks.”

Vyatta’s (News - Alert) products and technologies help customers build agile, capacity-on-demand networks that can scale up dynamically as data center requirements increase, Cheng explained.

Brocade officials added the company plans to utilize Vyatta technology and expertise with the goal of offering its customers an end-to-end architecture built on a highly virtualized, dynamic network infrastructure. Once the acquisition is finalized by the end of the year, Vyatta will be merged into Software Networking Business unit.

As part of Brocade’s Software Networking business unit, Vyatta gets the best of both worlds: The solidity of a multi-billion-dollar network infrastructure player with the agility of an innovative software group, according to Kelly Herrell, CEO of Vyatta.

“More importantly, our customers and partners get an even more aggressive partner for their SDN strategies – one that truly understands both the technology and the business of IP networking, as well as one that isn’t the least bit afraid of wielding an aggressive software strategy,” Herrell said in a blog post.

Since its launch six years ago, Vyatta has raised close to $45 million in venture capital funding, including a $12 million in November of last year.

In related VoIP news, Patton (News - Alert) Electronics recently revealed its all-new customer service support system, including its new platinum-level Premium Support and platinum-plus Premium 24/7 Support services, which take the company’s already unparalleled gold-standard free support to an unbelievable new level. Already offering free lifetime technical support is rare in itself, but by working with Patton-Inalp (Switzerland), Patton Electronics (USA) is extending its lifetime technical support with global 24x7 coverage – something that is even rarer in the electronic-telecommunications industry.

To learn more about Patton’s new levels of customer support, click here.