Cisco's acquisition of the privately held on-demand video provider is intended to give the company a leg up among cable companies and other carriers looking to deliver video-on-demand beyond TVs to other devices such as PCs and mobile phones.

"We believe Arroyo has a unique platform for delivering [video on-demand] to help cable operators to build multidevice and multiformat capabilities [into their service offerings]," said Kip Compton, senior director of video and IPTV development at Cisco in San Jose, Calif. "They have a unique software-based architecture that leverages improvements in standard server hardware."

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The software-based architecture makes it easier to distribute the technology around the network than other hardware-based approaches and allows the technology to be embedded in new media devices.

The Arroyo OnDemand video networking technology, which first debuted in early 2005, uses proprietary resource pooling and load balancing techniques that allow multiple industry-standard servers to work together as a single virtual video server. The Arroyo system manager provides configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting and maintenance functions for the video network.

The 4-year-old company, which will become a part of Cisco's Service Provider Routing Technology Group, brings a seasoned team of technologists to Cisco's growing Cable and Video Initiatives Group. That group also includes Cisco's Scientific Atlanta acquisition.

Arroyo Video Solutions was founded by Novell co-founder Drew Majors and Paul Sherer, a former 3Com chief technology officer who contributed to a number of network technology patents.

Both will stay on with Cisco once the acquisition is completed. Arroyo's 44 employees will also become a part of the group. Cisco expects the deal to close by November.

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