1. High Pace Of Networking M&A Will Continue

The pace of acquisitions by networking vendors heated up in 2016, and there's no reason to think that will slow this year. Cisco spent around $3 billion acquiring seven companies and Juniper Networks bought three companies last year. Ruckus Wireless was acquired by Brocade Communications, with Broadcom announcing months later its intent to buy Brocade. Polycom was acquired by private equity firm Siris Capital Group, while both Avaya and ShoreTel hired financial consultants to explore the sale of some assets or potentially the companies themselves.

In the digital era fueled by cloud expansion, solution providers should expect networking vendors to continue this brisk acquisition pace in 2017.