Cisco this week got in on an $11 million funding round for NeoPath Networks, a maker of file and storage virtualization gear - and a member of Network World's hot start-up honor roll.

NeoPath, founded in 2002, makes a device that consolidates file systems on servers and network-attached storage spread out across an enterprise, and allows administrators to configure and allocate storage space across the network through a centralized interface.

Cisco joined August Capital, DCM-Doll Capital Management and Gabriel Venture Partners in the funding round for NeoPath. The $11 million sum brings investment in the Mountain View, Calif., company up to almost $30 million.

The investment in NeoPath shows Cisco's continued interest in virtualization technology. Wide-area file services (WAFS) and server and storage virtualization have all been in Cisco's crosshairs recently. Cisco acquired server virtualization switch maker TopSpin a year ago, as well as WAFS systems maker Actona.

Cisco also got deeper into the storage virtualization market last year with a line card for the MDS 9500 storage switch that brings IBM, EMC and Veritas virtualization capabilities into the box.

Read more from Phil Hochmuth on network infrastructure at our LANs & Routers Research Center.