Riverbed Technology is another networking concern that stands to benefit by taking up the slack left in CSCO's wake.

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After serving as Chief Technology Officer at the infrastructure software company, McCanne departed in 2002 and co-founded Riverbed Technology.

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One stock highlighted is Riverbed Technology ( RVBD), which makes products to consolidate IT infrastructure, minimize bandwidth and speed up data access and backup.

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And earlier this month, Hewlett Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) signed a deal with startup Riverbed Technology to license its application acceleration technology for use in its own products.

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Meanwhile, its biggest competitors, which include networking behemoth Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and other niche players like Brocade Communications and Riverbed Technology, are trying to force their way into the niche that F5 has created in the market.

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For a more dramatic example, consider the following: An investment in Riverbed Technology (RVBD), a developer of software to accelerate application performance and data transmission speeds on WANs, would have generated a 6x return, versus an investment in Clearwire (CLWR), a provider of portable high-speed wireless broadband services, which would have generated a 0.3x return.

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Rounding out the top three with a 4.5 rating is the San Francisco-based technology company Riverbed.

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Paul Hastings turned to Riverbed, a San Francisco firm that develops technology to help keep businesses better connected.

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Riverbed, Cisco and Silver Peak are among the leaders in developing that technology.

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