Today's threat landscape is more dynamic than ever before. Rapid changes in the world around us, driven by cloud, mobility and the Internet of Everything, are considerably affecting traditional security approaches. The notion of the "perimeter" no longer exists and threats are able to circumvent traditional, disparate security products.

The marketplace needs a pervasive, continuous security architecture that addresses each phase of the attack lifecycle. Today, we are excited to announce the acquisition of Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE), which directly supports Cisco's strategy to constantly defend, discover and remediate threats -with the ultimate goal of covering our customers before, during and after an attack.

Sourcefire, based in Columbia, MD, is a leader in intelligent cybersecurity solutions. Sourcefire delivers effective, highly automated security through continuous threat research, detection and protection across its portfolio of next-generation intrusion prevention systems (IPS), next-generation firewall, and advanced malware protection solutions.

Sourcefire couples its technology with automated, real-time visibility across the extended network that includes virtual, mobile and endpoints. These solutions work not only at a point-in-time, but also provide continuous threat protection and retrospective remediation across the network.

Having led security innovation for more than 12 years, Sourcefire has assembled a world-class team with deep security DNA that will help drive Cisco's execution of its security strategy. Sourcefire was founded by Marty Roesch, who pioneered their success through open source, creating a community of security technologists working together to build an industry leading intrusion prevention system. Sourcefire also is home to the Vulnerability Research Team, a group of elite security experts who work around the clock to proactively discover, assess, and respond to the latest trends in hacking activities, intrusion attempts, malware and vulnerabilities.

Sourcefire's open source model is expected to strengthen and accelerate Cisco's ability to build a strong ecosystem of security partners who can bring real time threat intelligence and innovations to customers through integration with our technologies and platforms.

Security is a critical component to Cisco's overall strategy to be the No. 1 IT company.  Earlier this year, we acquired Cognitive Security, a security software company that applies artificial intelligence techniques to detect advanced cyber threats. Cognitive Security and Sourcefire are expected to help Cisco achieve our goal as we offer more best-in-class security services; more intelligence sources for continuous protection; and an open platform to enable a threat-aware network.

We believe that Cisco and Sourcefire customers will benefit from the combination of world-class products and technologies to provide continuous and pervasive advanced threat protection across the entire attack continuum and from any device to any cloud.

I am delighted to welcome the entire Sourcefire team to the Cisco family, and look forward to a prosperous future together.

In closing, I would simply like to remind you that this blog contains forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the risk factors discussed in Cisco's most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on September 12, 2012 and May 21, 2013, respectively, and in the press release announcing this transaction.  Such risks could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  For further information, please consult such Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and Cisco's Form 8-K covering such press release, each available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or by going to Cisco's Investor Relations website at http://www.cisco.com/go/investors.