Recently in the news, two networking startups have made big announcements.
DriveNets is aiming to disrupt the CSP (communication service provider) market, where network architecture hasn’t changed much in the last decade. Aviatrix Systems is aiming to disrupt the cloud networking market, in that their service allows companies to connect VPC’s across regions and providers, among other things.
DriveNets
DriveNets, having recently raised $117M in Series A has developed a carrier-grade, software defined routing stack that runs on white box hardware. High profile execs from Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Seagate, and others have invested in the startup. The product is called Cloud Network and it brings hyperscaler capabilities to the traditional telco network. The software can be deployed on hundreds of white boxes, transforming them into routing nodes, with zero touch provisioning, automation, fault tolerance, and so on. The best part, the architecture leverages containerized microservices. The founders of DriveNets, Ido Susan and Hillel Kobrinsky have previously sold startups to Cisco and AT&T.
Aviatrix Systems
Aviatrix Systems has been around for a few years, having raised $10M in Series A in September 2015. However, recently they hired Steve Mullaney, former CEO of Nicira and a few former Nicira execs. Nicira sold to VMware for $1.26B in June 2012. Hiring a high-profile visionary CEO definitely changes the dynamics of any startup. Their two main products are AVX Controller and AVX Gateway. They allow companies to build a multi-cloud network (overlay) on existing cloud infrastructure such as AWS, GCP, and Azure. At a more granular level, the service can be used to create a network that connects VPC’s across regions and providers. Other services they offer are a network firewall service, cloud VPN, monitoring, and encryption services.
DriveNets Background
- Company: DriveNets Ltd
- HQ: Ra’anana, Ha-Sharon Israel
- # of Employees: 136
- Funding: $117M in Series A
- Co-Founders: Ido Susan (CEO) and Hillel Kobrinsky (CSO)
- Value Prop: Helps communication service providers move to webscale networking. Simplifies network operations, reduces costs, and improves time to market for new feature introductions.
- Product: Network Cloud
- Core Services: Line rate forwarding, QoS, fast recover, and bandwidth reservation
- Provider Edge Services: BGP, Netflow, QoS, security functions, L3 VPN, SLA, P2P services, and telemetry
- Cell Site Gateway: Single network operating system, clock sync, MPLS support, and standard routing protocols
- Data Center Services: Connect tens of thousands of servers. No need for leaf and spine architecture. EVPN support, QoS, and ACL
Aviatrix Background
- Company: Aviatrix Systems, Inc.
- HQ: San Francisco
- # of Employees: 64
- Funding: $25.8M
- Execs: Steve Mullaney (CEO) and Sherry Wei (CPO and Founder)
- Value Prop: Enterprise Cloud Backbone. Build multi-cloud backbone/overlay network across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
- Products: AVX Controller and AVXGateway
- Network VPC’s across regions and providers
- Monitor network issues via dashboard
- Networks segmentation and isolation
- Firewall Network Service decouples networking and security functions
- Events can feed into SIEM or data platform
- Cloud-native VPN
