In the ever arcane world of proprietary/non standardized SD-WANs, Oracle announced that it’s acquiring SD-WAN technology provider Talari Networks for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close before the end of this year.

Talari’s SD-WAN technology is expected to complement Oracle Communications’ Session Border Controller (SBC) and network management infrastructure. Talari’s Failsafe technology is said to enhance the benefits of SD-WAN by adding greater reliability and predictability while maintaining security for site-to-site and site-to-cloud connectivity and application access over any IP network.

San Jose, California-based Talari currently serves more than 500 enterprise customers in 40 different countries across a variety of industries, including public sector, financial services, insurance, retail and manufacturing—and it expects to do even bigger things under the Oracle tent.

Talari CEO Patrick Sweeney, who joined the company last year, said the impact to existing and new customers will be tremendous. “Our loyal customers can expect to see powerful new network functionality and capabilities at an accelerated pace,” he said in a blog post. “And the vast span of Oracle’s brand and reach will extend the Talari solution across the globe. Together, Oracle and Talari plan to accelerate digital transformation and cloud adoption by providing companies with complete enterprise network solutions that deliver reliable real-time communications and performance of mission-critical applications over any network.”

Analysts were not particularly surprised by the deal given the competition now underway in the SD-WAN space. Talari ranked No. 9 in IHS Markit’s rankings of SD-WAN vendors based on second-quarter revenues.

“The musical chairs in the SD-WAN game is accelerating, so it’s good that Talari found a partner,” said R. Scott Raynovich, founder and principal analyst at Futuriom. “Talari’s technology is optimized for data center connectivity, and its recent move to deliver a cloud solution for Office365 and NetSuite make it a natural complement to Oracle’s cloud infrastructure. Given that Oracle is a software company and not an enterprise networking vendor, the goal of this acquisition is likely to improve the performance of Oracle’s cloud software.”

There’s not a lot of synergy between Session Border Controllers and SD-WAN, but Lee Doyle, principal analyst at Doyle Research, told FierceTelecom that he can understand why Oracle would want to acquire a product it can monetize in a hot space like this. It also has a history of buying communications companies, Acme Packet and Tekelec, both ongoing businesses.

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The Talari deal is one in a series of acquisitions Oracle has announced in recent weeks. Last month, the company announced plans to acquire data management and AI solutions provider DataFox. It also announced plans to acquire goBalto, a cloud platform developer in the life science industry.

Both Cisco and VMware have been working to blend more SD-WAN technology across their broader portfolios. Last year, VMware bought VeloCloud for an undisclosed sum while Cisco paid $610 million for Viptela.

SD-WAN vendors, connectivity providers, and application providers have begun to realize how much they need each other.  Total SD-WAN revenue, which includes appliance and control management software, reached $221 million in the most recent second quarter, which was up 25% quarter-over-quarter and twice the amount recorded in the second quarter of last year, according to IHS-Markit.

“Recently, cloud service providers have come to realize the importance of high-quality network connectivity to ensure a happy end user,” said Cliff Grossner, senior research director at IHS Markit. “For Oracle, purchasing Talari is an important move to be able to bundle SD-WAN with cloud services, remaining competitive with other providers that have established relationships with SD-WAN vendors such as Citrix.”

Citrix is an example of an SD-WAN vendor that has relationships with connectivity providers. For example, in May, Citrix partnered with the managed cloud provider RapidScale, which is offering Citrix NetScaler SD-WAN as a standalone managed service over RapidScale’s backbone. And Citrix recently partnered with Teridion to combine SD-WAN with a routing optimization network.

Gartner apparently values SD-WAN vendors with a connectivity play because it placed Aryaka and Citrix in the “Challengers” quadrant of its Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure.

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Recently, Gartner published its first Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure and placed Talari in its “Niche Players” quadrant. The report, which profiles 20 vendors, placed VMware in the top position for completeness of vision, followed by Cisco and SilverPeak in its coveted “Leaders” quadrant.

The Gartner report stated, “Talari’s strength lies in its sophisticated link aggregation and remediation, which provide seamless failover for sensitive applications such as UCaaS/VoIP. Talari should be shortlisted for WAN edge opportunities for global mid-market enterprises, especially when link remediation and sophisticated traffic steering are required.”

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References:

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/oracle-to-acquire-sd-wan-provider-talari-networks

https://www.zdnet.com/article/oracle-to-acquire-talari-network/

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/oracle-buys-sd-wan-vendor-talari-networks/2018/11/

Report: Cisco, VMware are cashing in on their SD-WAN deals

https://techblog.comsoc.org/category/sd-wan/