Ryan Young: Thank you for joining me today Atif. When we last spoke to Amir Khan, CEO, he introduced Cloud Networking as a Service. Can you explain further how the solution works?

Atif Khan: Alkira Cloud Networking as-a-Service (CNaaS) is a holistic solution for network connectivity and security. The solution automates and virtualizes thousands of cloud networking parameters and delivers streamlined connectivity entirely as a service. There’s no cloud networking to learn, no virtual agents to deploy and manage, and no hardware or software to procure. Simply click and connect using Alkira.

A key feature of the Alkira solution is the Alkira Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs). Alkira CXPs are cloud-delivered, virtual points of presence with a full routing stack and integrated network services capabilities.

Alkira CXPs are available globally in every public cloud region. They provide “plug-and-play” connectivity and network services insertion close to users and workloads to eliminate backhauling. Furthermore, Alkira’s CXPs automate the cloud barrier routers (VNET Gateway, TGW, Fast Connect VIF, GPC Peering) eliminating the need to route, peer, and configure those technologies, simplifying the customer's cloud connectivity. Users, sites, data centers, regional SD-WAN fabrics, collocations, public clouds, network and security services, and SaaS/Internet exit points simply connect to the global network through the geographically closest Alkira CXP.

Integrated stateful security services coupled with end-to-end segmentation capabilities allow enterprises to consistently secure on-premise, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Ryan Young: In the last interview, Amir shared Alkira’s integration strategy with security and WAN optimization vendors. Can you provide more details about this strategy?

Atif Khan: Alkira is honored to partner with most of the leading technology providers in the industry. By fully integrating solutions like cloud firewalls, analytics, and automation tools, the Alkira solution helps remove obstacles and accelerate the customers’ digital transformation even further.

We hear time and time again from our customers about the great lengths of time they had to spend on managing cloud networking and security solutions in different silos, and with the Alkira solution, things that took days or weeks can now be accomplished in minutes. It’s really our true dedication as a company to dramatically improve and simplify networking and give customers the solutions they need to increase their agility and better serve their business.

Ryan Young: What use cases have you seen customers use the Alkira Cloud Area Networking platform for?

Atif Khan: One use case where the Alkira solution has proven to be a game changer for customers is Mergers and Acquisitions. M&A activity can bring many unforeseen challenges to IT leadership teams, including the need to incorporate entirely new stacks of technology, merge systems and data, and manage entirely new regions of users, customers, and partners.

The Alkira solution allows M&A customers to use a One Architecture approach to quickly onboard their cloud workload (VPCs, VNETs, VCNs etc.) to the Alkira CXPs and consolidate or optimize their infrastructure footprint. Alkira CNaaS offers the same approach for connecting on-premise infrastructure to Alkira CXPs by leveraging various methods, including AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Routes, and IPsec/SD-WAN connections from their DCs and branches.

Alkira’s solution also allows customers who would like to inspect the traffic between on-premise to cloud or multi-cloud environments to use a policy-driven framework to inspect traffic as per the requirements.

Ryan Young: How can Alkira help a company in its hybrid cloud strategy?

Atif Khan: When it comes to making a hybrid cloud strategy successful, one area can either stymie digital transformation or turbocharge performance to deliver new levels of agility - that area is the network.

Connecting and securing the wide array of applications and services hosted across public and private clouds can be a complex challenge. That’s why Alkira Cloud Networking as a Service has proven to be such a game changer for even the largest multinational organizations.

The Alkira solution dramatically simplifies networking across all these different resource pools and clouds and provides a holistic solution with no agents to manage or additional infrastructure overhead to maintain.

It’s why we hear customers say that true digital transformation doesn’t really kick into gear until they start to modernize the network for the cloud era.

To see the solution in action, watch the Tech in 20-minute demonstration of Alkira Cloud Networking as a Service to see how to build a multi-cloud network in just 20 minutes.