Viptela's Kingpins Have a New Stealth Startup

Less than a year after joining @Cisco as part of the $610 million acquisition of #Viptela, several key #SDWAN specialists have jumped ship to form a new tech startup backed by two of the biggest VC names in Silicon Valley, @SequoiaCapital and @KleinerPerkins Caufield & Byers. The startup is San Jose, Calif.-based @Alkira, which was founded in May this year. The company is keeping its plans and the extent of its funding secret currently, revealing only the identities of its backers:  But what's clear is that Alkira is building a team around some of the key personnel who: Founded Viptela in 2012 Attracted funding from Sequoia (usually a sign that a startup is doing something funky) Built one of the SD-WAN sector's leading players Eventually attracted a bid of $610 million from Cisco in May 2017, with the deal closing in August when Viptela became part of the giant vendor's Enterprise Routing Team within the Networking and Security unit. (See Cisco Snaps Up Viptela, Cisco Looks to $610M Viptela Acquisition to Simplify SD-WAN and One to Watch: Viptela.) What's also clear is that Cisco has now lost some of the human resource smarts it paid for just last year. The individuals who joined Cisco as part of the Viptela deal but who have now cleared their desks are:

https://www.lightreading.com/carrier-sdn/sd-wan/viptelas-kingpins-have-a-new-stealth-startup/d/d-id/744653?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT

Cisco Integrates Viptela SD-WAN Tech on Existing Routers

@Cisco has wasted no time integrating @Viptela’s #softwaredefined wide area networking ( #SDWAN ) technology into its business. About 160 Viptela people, more than 95 percent of its employees, joined Cisco when the $610 million acquisition closed in August. And the people and technology have already merged with Cisco’s IWAN, forming what Cisco now calls “Cisco SD-WAN."

“We’re not inside Cisco as a single entity,” said Ramesh Prabagaran, senior director of product for Cisco SD-WAN.  The Viptela technology has been rolled up with the IWAN technology, “driving a single go-forward motion,” he said.

While Prabagaran handles the product piece, James Winebrenner is in charge of SD-WAN sales, and Nehal Bhau is director of SD-WAN engineering. The product is part of Cisco’s Enterprise Business group.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/cisco-integrates-viptela-sd-wan-tech-on-existing-routers/2017/12/amp/#ampshare=https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/cisco-integrates-viptela-sd-wan-tech-on-existing-routers/2017/12/

IHS: Cisco, VMware in SD-WAN Market ‘Two-Horse Race’

#Cisco and #VMware are in a “two-horse race” for the No. 1 software-defined wide-area network ( #SDWAN) vendor spot, an IHS Markit report says. The SD-WAN market totaled $137 million worldwide in the first half of 2017, according to the IHS Markit Data Center and Enterprise SDN Hardware and Software Biannual Market Tracker. But the market is forecasted to reach $3.3 billion by 2021.

Recent deals by @Cisco and @VMware set up these two vendors to compete for the top spot.

In August, Cisco completed its $610 million acquisition of @Viptela, which was ranked as the No. 2 SD-WAN company in the first half of 2017. Earlier this month, VMware bought SD-WAN revenue leader, @VeloCloud, for an undisclosed amount.

VeloCloud’s revenue reached $42 million, or 31 percent market share, in the first half of the year, according to IHS.  Viptela’s totaled $16.9 million, or 12 percent.

“VMware and Cisco have acquired the two SD-WAN market share leader positions, making the SD-WAN market a two-horse race for the number-one spot,” said IHS Markit Analyst Cliff Grossner in a statement. “And we could see even more consolidation as vendors set out to add SD‑WAN to their capability sets, especially since the technology is key to supporting connectivity in the multi-clouds that enterprises are building.”

Both service providers partnering with SD-WAN vendors to deploy overlay solutions, and virtual network function (VNF)-based solutions becoming more closely integrated with carrier operations and business support systems, are driving market growth.

The report also found that data center and enterprise software-defined networking (SDN)revenue for in-use SDN-capable Ethernet switches, SDN controllers, and SD-WAN increased 5.4 percent in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/ihs-cisco-vmware-in-sd-wan-market-two-horse-race/2017/11/amp/#ampshare=https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/ihs-cisco-vmware-in-sd-wan-market-two-horse-race/2017/11/

Viptela vEdge router tailored for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure 1

#SoftwaredefinedWAN vendor #Viptela has extended its traffic management and security services to infrastructure-as-a-service providers #Microsoft #Azure and #AmazonWebServices.

Viptela made available this week technology, called Cloud onRamp, that creates a virtual instance of the Viptela vEdge router on Azure and AWS. The executable file makes a direct connection between applications running on the IaaS platforms and the Viptela SD-WANappliance deployed in a branch office.

SD-WAN vendors, in general, abstract the network intelligence they provide into a virtual overlay that enables pooling of private and public connections and permits automation, centralized control and traffic management. The links can include MPLS, broadband, Long Term Evolution and Wi-Fi.

The Viptela overlay is a Layer 3 virtual private network. The vendor's controller, called vSmart, is a virtual appliance that provides security and route and policy management instructions to Viptela vEdge routers. The platform also includes a virtualized central component, called vManage, for configuration management and monitoring. Companies that buy a Viptela vEdge router also get vSmart and vManage.

http://searchsdn.techtarget.com/news/450422533/Viptela-vEdge-router-tailored-for-Amazon-Web-Services-Microsoft-Azure

CloudGenix CEO Blasts Cisco's Viptela SD-WAN Acquisition, Talks 'Game Day' Channel Engagement

#Cisco s acquisition of #Viptela won't boost the networking giant's position in the fast growing #softwaredefinedWAN market, according to Kumar Ramachandran, founder and CEO of #SDWAN startup $CloudGenix. "The Cisco acquisition of Viptela does two things simultaneously. One is, it gives great clarity to the market. And two, it confuses the heck out of Cisco customers," said Ramachandran, in an interview with CRN. "Clearly Cisco [Intelligent] WAN is a failure, that's why they bought Viptela." Ramachandran also talks to CRN about the vendor's Game Day channel initiative that pits CloudGenix's reps working alongside partners to close deals with new customers. "The partner walks out of the room literally with anywhere between 10 to 20 new deals in hand," he said.

http://m.crn.com/slide-shows/networking/300085721/cloudgenix-ceo-blasts-ciscos-viptela-sd-wan-acquisition-talks-game-day-channel-engagement.htm

Former VCE CEO Ready To 'Disrupt' Networking Industry By Leading SD-WAN Startup Viptela

Praveen Akkiraju, who was instrumental in growing #VCE into a $2.1 billion business, is now placing his bet on the fast-growing software-defined WAN market by taking the helm at startup @Viptela, which has embraced a full channel sales model. "I saw in Viptela an opportunity to lead that second wave of disruption in in the #softwaredefinednetworking space," Akkiraju said in an interview with CRN. "In the next five years, the truly top problem to solve is to help customers migrate to the cloud – applications, users, connectivity -- and I see Viptela and this particular wave of technology playing a very critical role in that. … 2017 is the year of software-defined WAN."  Akkiraju helped build converged infrastructure behemoth VCE as its CEO for three years before he left in 2016. Prior to VCE, he was a top #Cisco executive for nearly two decades, holding titles such as senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's enterprise networking and cloud infrastructure. [Related: Aruba Founder Melkote On President's Departure, Keeping Aruba's DNA Intact And Picking A Fight With Cisco] Partners said Akkiraju's decision to take over the San Jose, Calif.-based startup bodes well for the channel. "Bringing in someone with these sorts of credentials that has done it before and successfully -- plus with the Cisco background and understanding how to leverage the channel -- is just fantastic news for us," said Steve Inman, president of Teneo, a Richmond, Va.-based solution provider and Viptela partner. "Praveen is a person that would have lots of different opportunities to do lots of different things, and the fact that he chooses this space as his next adventure is very compelling to me." Research firm IDC estimates that worldwide SD-WAN revenue will exceed $6 billion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate of more than 90 percent over the next three years. "We're a startup in the valley here," Akkiraju said, "so this is a time for you to be breaking glass, disrupting – and there's no better place to do it than in a company like Viptela, where they have great technology, tremendous market traction, and SD-WAN is an excellent opportunity." Viptela emerged from stealth in 2014, led by founder and CEO Amir Khan, a former executive at Juniper Networks and Cisco. Khan will continue to play an active role inside the company as president and board member. Viptela provides SD-WAN technology that virtualizes WAN infrastructure. The platform allows enterprises to build carrier-agnostic, policy-controlled and cost-effective WANs. The startup's offerings have been deployed at thousands of sites by more than 25 Fortune 500 enterprises, while carriers including Verizon and Singtel are using Viptela to deliver managed SD-WAN services. More than 15,000 of its vEdge SD-WAN routers are in production across the globe. In October, the startup launched its first partner program: the vForce Global Partner Program. Highlights of the program include assured margins, a rapid on-boarding process and “partner success” funding.
http://m.crn.com/news/networking/300083386/former-vce-ceo-ready-to-disrupt-networking-industry-by-leading-sd-wan-startup-viptela.htm?itc=hp_tax_networking