Silicon Valley startup Prosimo is on a mission make it easier for enterprises to navigate the complex world of multi-cloud networking. The startup, which emerged from stealth two years ago, announced a new Cloud-Native Networking Suite, which extends the company’s Full Stack Cloud Transit Platform and makes it possible for enterprises to more easily unveil new applications and adopt native services from cloud providers.
Prosimo, which was founded by former executives of SD-WAN company Viptela, has raised $55 million in two rounds of funding. Its investors include BlackRock, Nepenthe Capital, General Catalyst, Celesta Capital and Redline Capital.
According to Mehul Patel, Prosimo’s head of marketing and customer insights, many companies made the move to the cloud a few years ago but are now facing challenges because it’s still taking them weeks to onboard a new application.
“There is a lack of skill for across multi-cloud,” he said, adding that it’s difficult for cloud networking architects to be skilled in all cloud providers and all types of multi-cloud services. “You can be certified in one area but six months later there are new capabilities,” Patel said.
Plus, many companies that moved to a multi-cloud environment continue to use their legacy systems instead of embracing a purely cloud native environment. But those legacy systems add complexity and slow the company’s ability to unveil new applications quickly.
That’s where the company’s Cloud-Native Networking Suite comes in. Patel said that this suite of services is intended to make it easy for customers to navigate a multi-cloud environment.
Already several large enterprise clients are using Prosimo’s Cloud-Native Networking Suite. Patel said Prosimo typically gives early access to certain customers to get feedback on the different features. These early access clients are using the new tools to manage their cloud resources and help with cloud onboarding.
The Cloud-Native Networking Suite includes three features: Visual Transit Builder, Cloud Tracer and Adaptive Service Insertion.
Prosimo said that the Visual Transit Builder feature is intended to simplify connectivity by giving customers the ability to drag-and-drop networks, applications and services across any cloud using the same visual builder. This helps enterprises overcome any potential knowledge gaps of their cloud team. “It establishes the routing and connectivity,” said Nathan Pearce, cloud networking and security strategist at Prosimo.
The Cloud Tracer tool lets enterprises track network topology and flow tracing across different regions and data centers and identifies any issues with networking, security or applications. Pearce said this function not only identifies where there is a problem but also tells you why there’s a problem so you can troubleshoot any problems. “This finds the problem and diagnoses it,” he said.
The third capability, Adaptive Service Insertion, provides built-in policy definitions for compliance, which eliminates human error in compliance, and allows real-time visibility so companies can insert services such as firewalls. For example, if a company has certain transactions that include credit card information it can make sure that the information always passes through a firewall. Prosimo added that this capability reduces the risk of human error and makes it easier to provide ongoing maintenance.