The M&A strategies of big security names such as Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR) continue to attract plenty of attention, but let’s not forget the smaller vendors who are also jockeying for position in an attempt to win a share of a growing market (see Juniper's Slow Shopping Trip and Could Sygate Get Snapped Up?).

Take CyberGuard Corp. (Nasdaq: CGFW), for example. The firewall/VPN vendor and content management specialist is approaching $20 million in quarterly revenue and has been quietly picking up companies left, right, and center for much of the last two years. Back in 2003, the company purchased certain assets of NetOctave, and snapped up firewall/VPN vendor SnapGear (see CyberGuard Buys Piece of NetOctave).

Last year CyberGuard acquired German content security specialist Webwasher AG and made an unsuccessful bid for Secure Computing Corp. (Nasdaq: SCUR). (See CyberGuard Acquires Webwasher and SCUR Spurns CyberGuard Suitor.)

Then, last week, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based vendor stumped up $3.6 million for the anti-spam, anti-virus, and URL filtering assets of Zix Corp. (see CyberGuard Gets Zix's Anti-Spam).

This may seem like chicken feed compared to the $4 billion that Juniper coughed up for Netscreen, but there is certainly method in CyberGuard’s madness. Pat Clawson, the company’s CEO tells NDCF that the latest deal is as much about acquiring new customers as new technology.

Read the whole story at Next-Gen Data Center Forum.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum