DT, VC Fund SD-WAN Vendor Aryaka
The cloud has arrived. As a result, businesses’ connectivity needs are changing. And that’s both a threat to and an opportunity for traditional communications service providers like the telcos.
Most telcos see the writing on the wall, and are at least beginning to explore adding SD-WAN services to their portfolios. Meanwhile, at least one telco has actually just invested in an SD-WAN supplier.
That telco is Deutsche Telekom. And it’s invested in SD-WAN company Aryaka. In fact, it was just earlier today that Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, along with Third Point Ventures, announced they have provided $45 million in funding to Aryaka.
The Series D money brings Aryaka’s total funding to $120 million.
“We really didn’t need this funding,” said Aryaka CMO Gary Sevounts. “We were on the path to profitability anyway.”
Arkaya plans to be profitable this year and hopes to issue an IPO next year, he said; adding the new money will help Aryaka grow faster. Aryaka plans to use the money on engineering, marketing, and sales in an effort to expand its global reach, noted Sevounts.
Global is the key word here.
That’s because Aryaka owns and operates a global private network that gives enterprises consistent connectivity around the world. That network, which includes 26 points of presence covering six continents, delivers the consistency and reliability of MPLS with the ability to address all application types at all business locations, and to include all corporate and mobile users, he said.
Some telcos have partnered with SD-WAN vendors to simplify the edge so they can offload some of their MPLS traffic to the Internet, Sevounts added. But he said those are regional deployments and don’t address global deployment requirements; whereas, he said, Aryaka and its global network do.
In addition to this “software-defined MPLS” network, as Sevounts referred to it, Aryaka offers CDN, last mile management, network application and visibility, and WAN optimization, all of which it provides via the as-a-service model to its customers. Customers have saved up to 70 percent as a result, he added.
Whether DT is a customer of Aryaka, however, he would not say. “That work is still underway. We haven’t announced that yet,” he said. Further details on that front are expected to be available in a couple months.
