The deep-diving network monitoring capabilities Riverbed gains as a result of the Opnet deal are more critical than the market realizes -- and this, as much as anything, is the reason for the company's stock sliding.

"I think the problem is that people don't realize [monitoring's importance] ... even within IT, people still don't put monitoring at the top. The problem is that everyone follows the shiny ball, and the shiny ball right now is cloud, or software-defined networking -- monitoring hasn't been sexy," according to Kindness.

He contrasts the deal to VMware's recent purchase of Nicira.

"Nicira is about control, it's not about monitoring ... they didn't have any revenue coming in, and [VMware] spent a billion dollars and the market was all excited about that," Kindness says, noting that Opnet has established revenue streams.

"Everybody talks about the system and managing it," he adds, "but no one ever talks about monitoring and money isn't spent on that side. But you can't have the system be automated and respond to data and users and floating all over this ethereal world without monitoring and making adjustments."