Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking

    SDN Vendors Big Switch, Plexxi Secure New Funding

    By
    Jeff Burt
    -
    January 20, 2016
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      SDN switch

      Big Switch Networks and Plexxi, two of a broad array of growing smaller companies in the network virtualization space, announced new rounds of funding that show the growing interest in changing the way things are done in the data center.

      Big Switch officials on Jan. 19 announced $48.5 million in Series C funding from a wide range of new and existing investors, including Redpoint Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, MSD Capital and Silver Lake Waterman. At the same time, Big Switch officials named two people—ex-NetApp CEO Dan Warmenhover and venture capitalist Gary Morgenthaler—to its board of directors.

      Since the company launched in 2010, it has raised $94 million in funding.

      For its part, Plexxi officials on Jan. 20 said the company had received funding from GV, formerly known as Google Ventures. Neither Plexxi nor GV said how much money was being invested.

      Both Big Switch and Plexxi—founded as businesses dealing with such trends as mobile computing, big data and the cloud—began looking for networking infrastructures that are easier and faster to program, can scale to meet rapidly changing customer demands and cost less than traditional environments. Software-defined networking (SDN) and network-functions virtualization (NFV) look to address the issues by removing the control plane and various networking tasks—such as load balancing, firewalls, routing and intrusion detection—from the underlying hardware and putting them into software that can run on lower-cost commodity systems.

      Analysts with Research and Markets are predicting a global SDN market that will hit $11.5 billion by 2020, and said last month that investments by service providers in both SDN and NFV will reach more than $20 billion by the same year.

      Legacy players like Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are rapidly building out their network virtualization portfolios, while a growing number of smaller companies and startups—not only Big Switch and Plexxi, but also Cumulus Networks, Midokura and Pica8—also are looking to gain traction in the space.

      Big Switch’s technologies are focused on enabling customers to run physical and virtual networks on bare-metal switches, and products include Big Switch Fabric for the data center, Big Monitoring Fabric for network management and security, and the Switch Light operating system for physical systems. Company officials said that Big Switch saw a 300 percent increase in customer wins in 2015 in multiple regions in the world and across a range of verticals, including technology, financial services, government, service providers and education.

      The company will use the new round of financing to help it scale and expand geographically, as well as grow its reach in markets already using network virtualization technologies, officials said.

      “These investors have a track record of reshaping the industries they touch,” Big Switch founder Kyle Forster said in a statement. “We have always had a dual mission of modernizing networking while building a great business, and this is a group that believes what we believe.”

      For its part, Plexxi’s focus is on offering converged, application-centric network infrastructure hardware and software tools that make it easier for users to build software-defined data centers and private and public clouds. Among the products are switches that consolidate network fabrics into a single tier and the company’s SDN controller, Plexxi Control, which optimizes networks based on the needs of workloads.

      Company officials said they will use the money from GV to scale its product offerings and company operations. Not including the GV funding, Plexxi has raised $83 million.

      “GV invests in companies that have their eye on the future, offer disruptive innovation and drive market change,” Plexxi CEO Rich Napolitano said in a statement. “We are at the dawn of the next great era of IT, the Cloud Builder generation, and Plexxi has developed a transformative data center network solution that promises to become the standard for future public and private cloud agility.”

      Jeff Burt
      Jeffrey Burt has been with eWEEK since 2000, covering an array of areas that includes servers, networking, PCs, processors, converged infrastructure, unified communications and the Internet of things.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×