Radware Acquires Strangeloop Networks

For the past several years, Strangeloops Networks has carved out a niche by building dedicated appliances that speed up Web application performance. This week it looks like that technology may finally be heading for more mainstream usage following the acquisition of Strangeloop Networks by Radware.

According to Radware COO Ilan Kinreich, the long-term plan is to incorporate the Web application acceleration technology that Strangeloop Networks developed into the application delivery controller (ADC) platform created by Radware. That may take some time, so Kinreich says Radware intends to continue offering the appliances that Strangeloop Networks developed to run its software.

Strangeloop Networks President Joshua Bixby says Strangeloop Networks makes a good fit with Radware because they both take a software-centric view to the market. Kinreich adds that Radware is committed to utilizing x86 processor technology that allows its software to more easily scale, versus competitors that rely on proprietary ASIC designs that take longer to develop and upgrade.

Radware, says Kinreich, like most other players in the networking space, has some unannounced ambitions in the area of software-defined networking (SDN). Kinreich says Radware will be able to achieve that goal, taking a similar software-centric view of how SDN technology should be deployed and managed.

In the meantime, it’s clear that as IT in general and enterprise networks in particular get more complex, ADC platforms are poised to play a much bigger role than being glorified proxy servers that primarily only manage application access to the servers.