Barracuda Networks, the networking appliance vendor headquartered in Campbell, CA, announced today that they entered into agreement to acquire Purewire, a Web security services startup in Atlanta, in a cash/stock deal.

I have to say this announcement came as somewhat a surprise to me. Barracuda is a known networking appliance vendor, selling low-cost, on-premise network security appliances from firewalls to antispam devices. When I spoke to the Barracuda folks a few months back, they remained skeptical about the whole cloud computing craze. This move to acquire Purewire, unexpected as it was, serves as another testimony that cloud computing has reached mainstream status.

 Barracuda made a name for themselves in industry by targeting small to medium businesses. Their SMB-oriented sales strategy has paid off, as Barracuda were able to make a number of acquisitions in the past two years. In 2007, they acquired NetContinuum, a Web application firewall company. Following that, they acquired BitLeap and Yosemite, which form the foundation of their cloud backup services, and now Purewire.