Riverbed solidifies federal market leadership with acquisition of Global Protocols

Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD), the IT performance company, has announced it has acquired Global Protocols, a leader in helping government organisations achieve greater application performance across satellite networks using the Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS).

The addition of Global Protocols` industry-leading technology, SkipWare, to Riverbed WAN optimisation will bolster Riverbed`s leadership position in delivering optimisation solutions for satellite networks.

SCPS is a protocol solution that was developed by NASA and US Space Command, and is used by military and other organisations that operate in satellite networking environments to overcome the severe performance degradation caused by weather and other interference that jeopardises mission-critical communications.

Global Protocols` SkipWare product has a customer base in military, civilian and Department of Defence (DoD) agencies that operate over satellite networks. The acquisition will allow Riverbed to build on its success in providing DoD and other organisations with IT performance solutions that meet their rigorous standards, and bring the joint solution to the wide range of organisations using satellite networks for business-critical communications.

The acquisition of Global Protocols is an expansion of the existing partnership between Riverbed and Global Protocols. Since announcing its partnership in 2008, Riverbed and Global Protocols have enabled joint customers to achieve high-performance, secure access to mission-critical information by combining the award-winning WAN optimisation capabilities of Riverbed Steelhead appliances with best-of-breed SkipWare functionality from Global Protocols within the Riverbed Services Platform (RSP).

"Government organisations are pressured to adhere to strict guidelines, but also realise that performance is paramount to their success. Riverbed has been successful working with government organisations to speed access to mission-critical data over the WAN. By partnering with Global Protocols in 2008, we extended our reach and deepened our investment in the federal market," said Jerry Kennelly, chief executive officer at Riverbed. "Adding Global Protocols` technology to our product portfolio as a result of this acquisition will enable customers to derive even greater value out of the combined solution."

Enterprises and government organisations leverage Riverbed WAN optimisation to improve remote and mobile employee productivity, enable private clouds, and provide enterprise-wide network and application visibility. By speeding the performance of applications between remote offices, private data centres and mobile workers, typically by five to 50 times and in some cases up to 100 times, Riverbed Steelhead products enable organisations to consolidate IT, improve backup and replication processes to ensure data integrity, and improve staff productivity and collaboration. More than 8 700 customers, across a wide range of markets, have implemented Riverbed WAN optimisation solutions in their geographically dispersed organisations.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the benefits expected to be provided to Riverbed and its business by the acquisition, statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, statements relating to the expected demand for Riverbed`s products and services, and statements relating to Riverbed`s ability to meet the needs of distributed organisations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialise or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include the inability to successfully integrate the Global Protocols business or product lines with our own. In addition, our results and actual outcomes are subject to other risks and uncertainties that relate more broadly to our overall business, including our ability to react to trends and challenges in our business and the markets in which we operate; our ability to anticipate market needs or develop new or enhanced products to meet those needs; the adoption rate of our products; our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with our distribution partners; our ability to compete in our industry; fluctuations in demand, sales cycles and prices for our products and services; shortages or price fluctuations in our supply chain; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; general political, economic and market conditions and events; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. More information about these and other risks that may impact Riverbed`s business are set forth in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on October 28, 2010. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Any future product, feature or related specification that may be referenced in this release are for information purposes only and are not commitments to deliver any technology or enhancement. Riverbed reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time.