Cisco is to acquire AppDynamics, a privately held application intelligence software company based in San Francisco.

AppDynamics's cloud application and business monitoring platform enables companies to improve application and business performance. Cisco will acquire AppDynamics for approximately $3.7 billion in cash and assumed equity awards.

"Applications have become the lifeblood of a company's success. Keeping those apps running and performing well has never been more important. Unfortunately, that job has only gotten harder, as IT departments and developers struggle with a tangled web of disconnected, complex data that's hard to understand," said Rowan Trollope, Cisco senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Internet of Things and Applications Business Group.

"The combination of Cisco and AppDynamics will allow us to provide end to end visibility and intelligence from the network through to the application, which, combined with security and scale, and help IT to drive a new level of business results."

AppDynamics will continue to be a led by CEO David Wadhwani as a new software business unit in Cisco's IoT and Applications business, reporting to Rowan Trollope. The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco's third quarter of fiscal year 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.