Update (04/15): Cisco announced today that it has closed the acquisition.

Original Article (03/29): Cisco announced its intent to acquire newScale, a “self-service, service catalog, and lifecycle management software” provider for cloud-based IT. The above video does a pretty good job of explaining what newScale is all about.

newScale claims to have over two million users globally, and counts companies like AT&T, American Express, Boeing, and Allstate among its customers. It fact, its customers come from a wide range of industries, including: automotive, chemicals, consumer goods, education, energy, financial, healthcare, insurance, IT outsourcing, manufacturing, oil/gas, pharmaceuticals, public sector, retail/hospitality, services, technology, telecommunications, and transportation.

“Cloud computing represents a major shift in the evolution of the Internet, and as more customers migrate from traditional IT infrastructures, the need for rapid self-provisioning and efficient management becomes increasingly critical,” said Parvesh Sethi, SVP of Cisco Services. “With the acquisition of newScale, Cisco will be able to accelerate the deployment of cloud services through a service catalog and self-service portal that allows customers to easily manage their IT infrastructures.”

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be complete in the second half of Cisco’s fiscal year 2011. newScale’s team would report to Cisco’s Advanced Services organization.

A couple weeks ago, Cisco announced its first-ever cash dividend, with a quarterly dividend of $0.06 per common share to be paid on April 20, 2011, to all Cisco shareholders. “As the role of the network expands across the IT sector, Cisco’s leadership position in the markets we serve is strong, and the time is right for Cisco to pay our first-ever cash dividend,” said Frank Calderoni, Executive Vice President & CFO of Cisco. “This dividend complements our leading position, and is an important part of our commitment to bring value to shareholders.”

Also about two weeks ago, Cisco completed another acquisition – that of Inlet Technologies, a provider of Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) digital media processing platforms. That one was about $95 million.