F5 Networks announced today that it will acquire LineRate Systems, terms were not disclosed.

John Giacomoni, CTO of LineRate, was recently featured in an interview on SDxCentral where he provided his view on how the SDN conversation will move from focusing on layers 2-3 to focusing on layers 4-7.

And Manish Vachharajani, their Chief Software Architect, recently shared his views on NFV. Ironically, the interview with John happened right after Vyatta was acquired by Brocade. This continues a trend of recent interviewees or SDxCentral guest bloggers who have been acquired (like Contrail, Cariden). Coincidence?

Regardless, it speaks to the continued interest and consolidation in the space. LineRate had, among its customers, PhotoBucket, who had it running in production. Interestingly, though, LineRate was primarily an integrated application suite and proprietary OS running on top of  x86 hardware that provided a host of features including load balancing and other ADC type features (NATing, content switching), SSL offload, etc.

So, unlike some of the other players in the L4-7 SDN space, which run purely as software (like Vyatta or Embrane, or even overlays with L4-7 built in like Midokura or ConteXtream) on top of general-purpose operating systems, or within virtual machines, LineRate attempts to take advantage of running on bare metal.

As we understand, LineRate was recently in the process of fundraising, so this acquisition provides them with a platform and foundation to further their product development. And as F5 itself puts it, LineRate has an "early stage product," which means the team and technology will be integrated into F5's existing offerings.

It certainly is in line with F5's traditional HW-centric focus. It remains to be seen if this will help F5 move more aggressively into the software space to compete with other providers of L4-7 technology within the new SDN-enabled data center.