Riverbed snaps up Xirrus
Cloud and wireless solutions to be wrapped up into Riverbed's SD-WAN offering
Riverbed has acquired Xirrus in a move which will see the firm's cloud and WiFi offering intergrated into its flagship software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology.
Xirrus offers access points and switches, as well as cloud management and application control software. According to Riverbed, the buyout will see Xirrus' WiFi and cloud products integrated into Riverbed's SD-WAN offering called SteelConnect.
"Xirrus is a strategic acquisition for Riverbed, providing us with a leading enterprise-grade WiFi solution, and enhancing SteelConnect to deliver an unmatched SD-WAN offering that will help further fuel our growth in this hot market," said Jerry Kennelly, CEO of Riverbed.
"In today's digital, cloud, and mobile world, enterprise networks are more complex and unpredictable than ever before and IT is struggling to manage all of this. A fundamental rethink to networking is required and with this acquisition, Riverbed and our partners are uniquely positioned to provide CIOs and businesses with a software-defined networking approach that delivers unified connectivity and orchestration across the entire network."
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Riverbed expects to complete the transaction by the end of the month.
"Together with Riverbed, we embrace a tremendous opportunity to create the world's first SD-WAN solution that covers the core to the edge of the network," said Shane Buckley, CEO of Xirrus.
"The integration of our solutions combines best-of-breed federated identity and application control with differentiated SD-WAN technology, addressing the stringent requirements of today's cloud, mobile and digital world. We are thrilled to be part of the Riverbed family and continue to thrive in this fast-growing, critical market."
Riverbed was taken under private ownership in April 2015 after being bought out by investment firm Thoma Bravo for $3.5bn.
The cash injection fuelled a duo of acquisitions to beef up its SD-WAN offering, including German firm Ocedo at the start of last year, and US application performance firm Aternity later that summer.
Riverbed's global channel boss Karl Meulema recently told Channelnomics Europe that he has slashed the size of Riverbed's EMEA distribution fleet since 2014 from 14 to eight players. Meulema also said he plans to engage with less partners globally.