Zeus Gets Acquired by Riverbed

It looks like Riverbed is making a move into F5’s territory by acquiring Zeus. F5 has WOC (WAN optimization controllers) technology, but the last time I took a look at them (admittedly several years ago) they were pretty terrible. However F5 has the market leader for load balancing. Riverbed is known as the leader in WOCs, but until now had no load balancing capabilities.

Strong WOCs, new load balancing. F5 has strong load balancing, iffish WOC. Is Riverbed looking to be F5 with a goatee?

Meet Riverbed

Everyone I’ve ever talked to loves the Riverbed WOCs. Their primary competitors on this space have been Cisco (with WAAS), Bluecoat, F5  (used to have WanJets, now they’re modules in the LTMs) and a handfull of others. But they haven’t had a load balancer, until now.

It makes sense, the WOC and load balancer spaces both live in that tricky realm of Layer 7 network devices. It is a realm where many network admins dare not tread. It’s tough enough keeping STP, OSPF, ISIS, let alone all the new stuff like FCoE, TRILL, DCBX, and so forth without it all bursting one’s cranial cavity like an over-ripened fruit, these products throw all those Layer 7 protocols (HTTP, IMAP, POP3, Exchange, etc.) into the mix.

To be honest, I haven’t seen a lot of Zeus in the market (while I always see F5).  My impression is that, like my favorite band Pop Will Eat Itself, they’re bigger in Europe.

See press release here: http://www.zeus.com/resources/press-release/riverbed-expands-it-performance-business-acquisition-zeus-technology