Cradlepoint Acquires Pertino, Adds SDN to 4G LTE Networking

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in Sept.-Oct. 2015.**

Cradlepoint, a provider of software-defined 4G-LTE network services, on Tuesday announced it has acquired computer networking software provider Pertino.

Cradlepoint said Pertino’s cloud platform and technical expertise help it to bring software-defined networking (SDN) to 4G LTE networks for small, medium and large enterprises; SMBs; government and carrier organizations. Financial details regarding the acquisition were not disclosed.

Ed Walton, Cradlepoint’s vice president of channel and alliances, tells Channel Partners his company will be able to sell cloud-based virtual private networks (VPNs) through its partner program from day one that “help connect people, places and things on their own VPN.”

“This will absolutely help partners create new opportunities for their clients looking for a quick way to deploy a VPN for their customers,” he said.

Cradlepoint has 1,500 partners globally, from large MSPs, enterprise integrators and value added distributors, to small, regional IT VARs, Walton said. Pertino also has a partner program that includes the same types of partners, but fewer than Cradlepoint, he said.

“Existing Pertino partners will have the opportunity to join Cradlepoint’s existing partner program,” he said. “And for Pertino’s partners, they will now have access to Cradlepoint’s full breadth of 4G LTE networking products and cloud-management platform.”

“Enterprise networks are going through unprecedented change,” said Craig Elliott, Pertino’s co-founder and CEO. “By 2020, the number of mobile workers is expected to swell to over 72 percent of the U.S. workforce, tablets and smartphones will far exceed PCs and servers, and over 8 billion ‘things’ will need secure, always-on connectivity to the enterprise. These seismic trends are creating the need for more scalable, secure, agile and reliable WANs with pervasive 4G LTE connectivity.”

Cradlepoint’s clientele includes more than 15,000 government, enterprise and SMB customers globally.

With the addition of Pertino, Cradlepoint has the potential to “impact the market as more and more enterprises recognize the need to use different types of traffic to meet their business demands,” said Christian Renaud, research director, Internet of Things, 451 Research.