Embrane Gets $14 Million to Accelerate App-Centric Network Services

Cisco leads a $14 million funding round for Embrane to enhance its go-to-market strategy, Arista expands its cloud platform with two new 100GbE modules, and Dell launches new networking solutions, featuring the Z9500 Fabric Switch.

Embrane raises $14 million. Embrane announced it has raised $14 million in Series-C funding, led by Cisco. The round also includes new Embrane investor Presidio Ventures, and participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates and North Bridge Venture Partners. The new funds will enhance its go-to-market strategy and expand support for third-party virtual network service appliances. This brings the total amount of funding to $41 million to date. “We are always looking for innovative technologies that can enable new solutions. For the SDN market, which we believe is poised for significant growth, Embrane is the only purpose built end-to-end solution,” said Shunichi Aramaki, CEO of Presidio Ventures. “After careful analysis, it became clear Embrane has a unique offering that not only enable first movers, but also bridges any size traditional networks to transition to SDN without operational disruption - all of which are important to its continued leadership in the space.” “As the dust settles on all of the SDN hype, it has become clear that companies with real products and real customer deployments today will become the leaders of tomorrow,” continued Pete Sonsini, General Partner at NEA and current Embrane board member. “Adding Cisco as a strategic investor as well as Presidio Ventures certainly gives Embrane the resources it needs to accelerate its momentum.”

Arista adds new 100GbE modules. Arista Networks announced the expansion of its cloud platform with two new 100GbE modules. The Arista 7500E 100GbE line cards provide full support for IEEE 100GbE standards on both single-mode and multi-mode fiber, and broaden the choices for 10/40/100G with investment protection for existing customers. Additionally, those deploying the Arista DANZ features within Arista EOS can now get intelligent traffic visibility on 100GbE networks by leveraging Tap Aggregation on Arista 7500E modular platforms. “We selected the Arista 7500E platform for our data center to provide customers with true 100 Gigabit Ethernet services,” said Ihab Tarazi, Chief Technology Officer at Equinix.  “Because of the open architecture and cloud interconnect protocols, including VXLAN, the programmability of Arista EOS and multi-speed mode, we are able to allocate data center resources at 10/40 or 100 gigabits in a reliable and cost-effective manner.”

Dell launches networking fabrics and control for SDN, NFV. Dell announced new networking solutions, featuring the Z9500 Fabric Switch. The new Dell Networking Z9500 is an energy-efficient, high density per rack unit 10/40 GbE core switch. It is designed to address data center 10/40 GbE aggregation requirements through centralized core or distributed core architectures for high performance enterprise data centers, cloud computing, provider hosted data centers, and enterprise LAN cores. The 3RU switch features 132 40GbE ports and expandable to 528 10GbE ports, and has pay-as-you-go licensing for 36, 84, or 132 port options. A new Active Fabric Controller is a purpose-built SDN platform designed to simply and securely configure and deploy networking functionality in cloud and XaaS environments. “Dell is committed to changing the game in networking. As a follow on to our recent Open Networking announcement, I’m excited about demonstrating more innovation in bringing new and open solutions to our customers regardless of size,” said Tom Burns, vice president and general manager, Dell Networking. “We’re extending our leadership in SDN, NFV, and advanced new architectures that maximize customer choice and provide superior economics to the way networking has always been done.”