Riverbed slurps Xirrus to take SD-WAN all the way to Wi-Fi

Riverbed has acquired Xirrus for an undisclosed sum and will now try to build a software-defined WAN that stretches all the way to Wi-Fi access points.

Xirrus makes enterprise-grade Wi-Fi kit that packs multiple access points into a single chassis, then combines their traffic with an in-chassis switch. The many radios inside the company's kit are software-definable and that's driven from a cloud-hosted application. The privately-held company is thought to have had revenue of between $50m and $100m.

Riverbed is to bake Xirrus into its SteelConnect software-defined WAN product, the idea being to build a virtual network that goes from HQ to a remote office and then all the way out end-users on Wi-Fi.

The internet of things is also on Riverbed's mind as it hopes Xirrus will help it to securely network data generated by things.

That's in the future. For now there's not much more than press releases, blog posts, ShinyHappy™ tweets and a promise this will all work out just fine. Which it probably will, seeing as Riverbed's SD-WAN product is derived from its 2015 acquisition of Ocedo. ®

“We’re thrilled to be part of the Riverbed family and continue to thrive in this fast-growing, critical market” - Shane Buckley, Xirrus CEO https://t.co/w1YIIW453i

— Xirrus (@Xirrus) April 19, 2017