Alkira has appointed Exclusive Networks to introduce its cloud networking as-a-service (CNaaS) platform to the channel. This makes Alkira’s Cloud Services Exchange (CSX) available through Exclusive’s partners in 40 countries across five continents.
The AI-based CSX system claims to be so clever it allows service providers to solve major network problems in “a few mouse clicks” and can bring the Israelis and the Palestinians together (we made the last one up).
Alkira founder and CEO Amir Khan said the industry faces a shortage of networking expertise and the lack of control costs the industry billions of pounds, with wasted resources and security compromises being just two of the many problems. This means that networks cost too much, are easily hacked and are difficult to defend.
According to Khan, CNaaS is networking’s answer to web services. After selling SDN pioneer Viptela to Cisco, Khan spent two years designing a system to solve the next big problem: controlling networks as the cloud began to overshadow everything else. This work resulted in CSX, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to keep on top of all the millions of network management variables – ranging from capacity provision to firewall settings – and put the network managers back in control.
Khan said that Exclusive Networks had been appointed to get its service provider partners up to speed on CNaaS.
Exclusive’s vice-president of global vendor alliances and business development Denis Ferrand-Ajchenbaum Exclusive’s global service integrator (GSI) partners were the first step because they were the companies doing most to accelerate public cloud adoption.
“These guys talk to the C-level of the Global 2000. We’re taking a phased approach in Europe, starting with the tier-one countries the UK, France and Germany, but with an eye on Benelux, Nordics and Spain”, he said.
Exclusive flogged €2.9 billion of cyber security, networking and cloud infrastructure in 2020 for vendors such as Fortinet, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Rubrik and Sentinel One.
