On Cisco's Radar? 10 Companies Analysts Say The Vendor Could Buy Next

NS1

CEO: Kris Beevers

Founded: 2013

Headquarters: New York

The DNS-focused and traffic management startup NS1 would fit well inside Cisco's OpenDNS technology as well as its Digital Network Architecture (DNA). The networking giant is striving to boost DNA's capabilities, which is a key reason why it's acquiring Viptela.

"Customers are recognizing that DNS management is a important part of network infrastructure to guard against things like DDoS attacks and make sure resources are efficiently allocated because with so many more IP endpoints being critical to the business, you have to have efficient management of DNS resources on all sides," said the global research firm analyst. "I've seen Cisco with DNA. They've mentioned causally some DNS [and] DHCP integration, so I could see building out that story through an NS1 acquisition."