Riverbed Technology, a company we've covered closely over the last year, is beefing up its clould services product portfolio in a bid to become the leader in cloud networking services.

Riverbed has been riding the cloud networking movement quite nicely. It sells a lot of gear that can be used by corporations and services providers to build cloud services. Now, it's doubling down. Today it introduced a product called Whitewater, which accelerates data connections to a cloud services, as well as Cloud Steelhead, a product that helps services providers build private cloud connectivity services with clients.

Now, for those of you who haven't been exposed to all matter of “cloud” hype, here's the deal: There's a big movement afoot in Information Technology (IT) to outrsource many of your computing and data services to a service provider, and to access these services via network. The geeks call this the “cloud” -- because the applications and services lie out there -- in the network.

Riverbed's new product launch includes distribution partnerships with the likes of Amazon, AT&T, BT, Nirvanix, and Orange Business Services. Not too shabby.

Yes, there is a lot of hype on cloud services, the fact is that the growth appears to back it up. IT managers are definitely looking to outsource more services, buy applications from the “cloud” that don't have to be installed, and even begin to more more of their data operations to oursourcers.

Riverbed, which sells the equipment which enables the data center connectivity, has been a major beneficiary of this trend. The company has more than doubled sales in one year. The trend is likely to continue.

I think this is a great move for Riverbed, because it's a good market and it reinforces the perception that they are a leader in the cloud networking space. They are expanding their already excellent product portfolio and have more room for growth. Riverbed's stock has been running hard, and on today's news, it's up nearly 3% to $29.870, trading close to an all-time high at $30.

The company split the stock 2-for-1 in October. With a market cap of $2B, the company hasn't grown too big and it's likely to become a more attractive acquisitoin The company split the stock 2-for-1 in October. With a market cap of $2B, the company hasn't grown too big and it's likely to become a more attractive acquisition target with its positioning in fast-growth markets.