Riverbed Hones SD-WAN Solution with Xirrus Acquisition

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in February and March.**

Riverbed Technology will acquire Xirrus in an effort to expand its SD-WAN solution.

Xirrus is known for cloud-managed Wi-Fi services, which Riverbed said will give customers and partners unified connectivity and policy-based orchestration. Although Riverbed will offer Xirrus as a standalone WLAN solution, it will also integrate it with SteelConnect, Riverbed’s SD-WAN offering.

The Wi-Fi services in Xirrus’ portfolio include access points and cloud services.

“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,” Xirrus CEO Shane Buckley said.

Riverbed CEO Jerry Kennelly says the Xirrus acquisition will give his company an enterprise-grade Wi-Fi solution.{ad}

“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,” Kennelly said. “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.”

Rohit Mehra, IDC’s research vice president of network infrastructure, says IT managers are looking more and more to unify network operations across wired and wireless LANs and WANs.

“With this acquisition, Riverbed is well positioned to address this shift, adding an enterprise-grade WLAN solution to a broader enterprise branch offering with SD-WAN that also integrates industry-leading WAN optimization and visibility,” Mehra said.

Riverbed partners will sell Xirrus solutions. Karl Meulema, Riverbed’s senior vice president of global channels, says partners are getting “expanded opportunities” with the deepened SD-WAN solution and new Wi-Fi portfolio.

“Xirrus enriches the value proposition of our SteelConnect offering connectivity and orchestration capabilities that span the entire network from LAN/WLAN, WAN, data center and the cloud,” Meulema told Channel Partners. “Further, Xirrus will provide greater opportunities for multi-product sales and solution selling for partners. Riverbed plans to update its trainings to enable partners to sell the full portfolio of SteelConnect and Xirrus solutions to enterprises around the globe.”

Riverbed made an SD-WAN-related acquisition last year when it bought Ocedo. The Xirrus deal will likely close this month. The companies did not publicize the financial terms of the deal.

Riverbed may share more channel-related news at its upcoming partner summit next week. View our gallery from last year’s conference.