Aryaka vs. Riverbed FUD-fight fires up again
Cloudy contender buying market share at 'remaining value' of old kit
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Cloud network startup Aryaka has accused WAN optimisation veteran Riverbed of dissing it in a competitive intelligence document, and is firing back with an equipment buyback program for new customers.
The program is based on heavy discounts to Riverbed Steelhead users, which Aryaka says will be based on the “remaining value” of the kit it replaces. Marketing and sales VP Sonal Puri told The Register the key to recovering the cost of the discounts will be customer retention.
“Yes, it's an aggressive move,” Puri said. “We offset and discount services aggressively, and the cost of sales goes quite high, but our vision is to keep that customer for life.”
She added that the company is now generating one-third of its revenues through upgrades to existing customers, giving it confidence that the buy-back program can be viable in the longer term.
Hostility between the two outfits became sharply public in June when Puri blogged that a competitive intelligence document being circulated by Riverbed amounted to a FUD campaign, drawing Riverbed technical director Steve Riley's return snipe that Aryaka was indulging in “amusing FUDsplaining”.
Puri told El Reg that the buyback is also designed to get customers out from under the tyranny of kit they're waiting to depreciate – “appliance that are old, out of size, and running out of capacity.”
Riverbed declined comment for this story. ®
