Alkira Introduces Fastest Route to the Cloud via Cloud Area Networking

Alkira launched Cloud Area Networking, a next generation network that gets networking teams to the cloud fast. The landmark, industry-first solution is a full stack, edge-to-cloud enterprise-grade network with built-in routing and network services. It’s the only network 100% built in the cloud, delivered as a service, with no hardware to buy or agents to install.

Even the savviest organizations grapple with slow cloud deployments. The slowness comes from juggling multiple networking silos with different tooling and capabilities. Unification is key and requires specialized cloud knowledge and error-prone manual configurations. Alkira Cloud Area Networking has already provided solutions for Warner Music Group, Koch Industries, Tekion and more.

Now, network engineers and architects-with nothing more than a browser and a mouse-can stand up unified global networks and cloud on-ramps. Work that used to take months to complete now takes hours. Alkira Cloud Area Networking automates the entire creation, management, and operation of the network. There is no hardware or software to install.

Unify Everything

Alkira Cloud Area Networking dramatically accelerates cloud and multi-cloud deployments. It does this by unifying all users, sites, clouds, and vendors into one network. The result: total end-to-end visibility, compliance, security and more. Alkira’s “Unify Everything” capabilities include:

• Total visualization of all network traffic from on-prem to deep in the cloud
• Traceroute, packet capture, flow capture, and policy inspections from any on-prem network to any cloud network
• Enhanced segmentation and micro-segmentation that provide greater compliance across the entire network
• Automated network address translation that makes it easy to remediate overlapping IP addresses across the Cloud Area Network
• Easy connection of partners to the Cloud Area Network with secure resource sharing

Scale Everywhere

Organizations can stop adding to their technical debt with one-off, unmaintainable network deployments. Alkira Cloud Area Networking is built for the future: Repeatable. Blueprinted. Automated. It fully integrates with the CI/CD pipeline for maximum operational agility. This makes it easier to deliver a unified policy posture across the entire on-prem and cloud network. Alkira’s “Scale Everywhere” capabilities include:

• Additional APIs to enable network as code and policy as code
• Integration into CI/CD pipelines to automatically spin up networks in multiple clouds
• End-to-end application security and compliance policies for egress, ingress, and access control

Connect Anything

Alkira automates the tedious plumbing needed to connect anything to the network. The company auto-connects clouds, sites, users, and SD-WAN fabrics. Alkira’s “Connect Anything” capabilities include:

• SecureConnect, which allows users to remotely access anything on their Cloud Area Network from anywhere
• One-click high availability and disaster recovery setup for critical connections
• Rapid network service insertion, including enhanced WAF/DDoS protection for internet facing applications

“Organizations looking to transform their networks are often surprised by the vast magnitude and intricacies of the undertaking,” said Shamus McGillicuddy, Vice President of Research, Network Management, at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). “The complexity of existing networking and security architecture, lack of uniform policies across on-prem and public cloud, and limited network visibility all combine to create lengthy, error-prone implementations that are difficult to monitor. Cloud Area Networking technologies that automate all that tedious plumbing can be a compelling solution for organizations that want to quickly embrace the speed and agility of the cloud.”

Amir Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Alkira, said: “Until now, enterprises had a choice between shoe-horning last-generation technology into the cloud or using orchestration tools to hide the complexity. Enterprises are reaching the limit on how much they can patch their increasingly fragmented network. The Alkira way, the Cloud Area Networking way, is a single, enterprise-grade network infrastructure built for the cloud but grounded in reality.”

Khan added: “Cloud was supposed to make life easier, but it has grown more complex as customers struggle to manage islands of networking, each with its own rules and tools. They thought they were buying agility, but what arrived was a mountain of complexity and technical debt.”