Alkira: Accelerating Network Infrastructure for the Age of AI

Networking is the backbone of any enterprise IT infrastructure. But with workloads still migrating to the cloud, enterprises choosing a multi-cloud approach, and the rise of the AI age, networking needs a facelift. There is a need for a new type of company that combines technical depth with the optionality for enterprises to extend their networking capabilities. We believe Alkira is the company being scaled at the nexus of all these factors. 

To support their mission of enabling network infrastructure-as-a-service, we are pleased to announce our participation in Alkira’s $100M Series C financing.

According to Gartner, “worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 20.4% to total $678.8 billion in 2024, up from $563.6 billion in 2023.” As public cloud adoption continues to surge, so too does multi-cloud adoption. According to one survey, 87% of respondents reported having a multi-cloud strategy, and 72% are taking a hybrid approach by combining the use of both public and private clouds. 

The benefits of multi/hybrid-cloud deployments are numerous, but it also complicates the “plumbing” infrastructure required to move data. This complexity is further amplified by remote work, the explosion in endpoints / BYOD, global distribution, and inconsistency between on-prem and cloud architectures (including differing architectures between each cloud service provider). All of this is underpinned by the need to comply with business imperatives including cost, latency, uptime, and security implications. 

Enter Alkira, a solution that simplifies multi-cloud network management for globally distributed enterprises. Alkira provides a unified network infrastructure-as-a-service that at its core natively integrates with existing cloud infrastructure and provides a fully managed and optimized networking mesh. The Alkira solution enables fast and simple deployment of networks via a no-code visual GUI and manages and executes essential day-to-day cloud networking tasks, such as creating cloud on-ramps, connecting apps and users, configuring apps, provisioning users and applying security policies.

Current market trends such as the proliferation of AI serve as tailwinds for growth for a networking solution like Alkira’s. Effective AI adoption necessitates not just the ability to build and deploy cutting-edge models; it also requires robust and scalable network infrastructure. Alkira’s platform addresses this demand by enabling enterprises to seamlessly expand their global network “on demand”. This ability to efficiently scale infrastructure allows customers to manage large datasets and complex computations across on-premise and multi-cloud environments globally, all without sacrificing performance. The solution also embeds advanced segmentation, encryption and integrated network security services that can ensure the integrity of enterprise AI projects. 

Most critical to delivering on this vision is the team. Led by repeat founders and seasoned networking operators Amir Khan and Atif Khan (former founders of Viptela), Alkira’s leadership team brings >100 years of cumulative networking experience, allowing them to stay ahead of customer needs and product vision.

We are proud to support Alkira in its mission to deliver the next generation of networking infrastructure.