In a move to strengthen its hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) play, Cisco announced plans to acquire HCI software company Springpath for $320 million.

The Sunnyvale, California-based startup developed a distributed file system purpose-built for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems. Springpath competes against HCI software from Nutanix and VMware.

Cisco led Springpath’s $34 million series C funding round in 2015. A year later the two companies launched HyperFlex, an HCI system with Springpath software built on Cisco hardware. Today’s announcement means Cisco will bring the HCI software stack in-house.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) made a similar move earlier this year, acquiring hyperconverged software maker Simplivity for $650 million.

And while it doesn’t develop its HCI software stack in-house, Dell EMC — another leading HCI vendor — benefits from parent company Dell Technologies’ ownership of VMware. Dell EMC sells HCI systems based on VMware’s vSAN software.

The HyperFlex system has more than 1,800 customers, according to a blog post by Rob Salvagno, the head of Cisco’s M&A and venture investment team. “We are excited to now welcome Springpath to the Cisco team and as one company, we will further accelerate our business in hyperconvergence,” he wrote.

HCI is a booming market.  According to IDC, HCI  will be a $6 billion opportunity by 2020 and is the fastest growing segment in the data center space. This makes it attractive to hardware and software vendors alike.

In its earnings call with investors last week, NetApp CEO George Kurian bragged that the company’s next-generation HCI system, based on SolidFire storage software, would leave Nutanix and VMware products in the dust.

And Microsoft, which quietly debuted its own HCI offering in October 2016, announced its hyperconverged hardware partners last month.

Acquiring Springpath, and further integrating the hyperconverged software with Cisco’s network and compute offerings, brings “the simplicity of hyperconvergence to mission-critical applications in [the enterprise] data center,” said Kaustubh Das, Cisco VP of product management for HyperFlex, in an email. “In addition, integration with other Cisco assets helps bring the simplicity of hyperconvergence into edge and remote and branch office locations in their operational footprint.

“For the future of HCI, Cisco plans to evolve hyperconvergence further by working to deliver seamless multicloud experiences for our customers.”

Cisco expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018. Springpath will join the Computing Systems Product Group led by Liz Centoni.