Alkira strengthens its cloud as a service operations in Europe

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Cloud networking pioneer Alkira opened its headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands this week to drive an international expansion crusade in the EMEA region. Alkira continues to hire teams in the UK, Germany, France, the Benelux and the Nordic countries, while adding new partners to the channel.

The crusade is chaired by Senior Vice President International Paul Couturier, who has extensive experience in introducing innovative start-ups to Europe, as well as managing its international development programmes. Previously, Couturier was responsible for growing international sales for TippingPoint, Efficient Networks, Cyan, LightCyber and Palo Alto Networks.

Couturier said, “Distributor relationships are critical. Alkira markets cloud networking as a service. We help clients build a corporate cloud network that unifies their clouds, facilities, and users. This raises numerous questions for clients, who expect a consultative relationship. Our mission is to grow Alkira’s channel partners.”

Couturier anticipates strong interest from Managed Service Providers and Security Service Providers (MSPs and MSSPs) “who see cloud services as a key competitive differentiator in an increasingly demanding environment.”

Alkira’s Cloud Network as a Service (CNaaS) dramatically reduces the time it takes to provision a secure, low-latency cloud network. It simplifies the deployment and management of third-party firewalls, while also offering full visibility and governance for second-day operations.

Users of the service in the US include Warner Music Group, Koch Industries and automotive startup Tekion. Couturier reports an equally enthusiastic reception from customers in Europe.

“The network is always growing, expanding and needs to go faster. There is an urgent need for networks designed for the virtualized world of the cloud. CIOs are looking for full transparency, cost efficiency, provisioning in hours not weeks, and not just for a single cloud, but across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.”

As businesses migrate workloads from data centers to the cloud, they are under increasing pressure to simplify and streamline networks. “This becomes even more relevant as enterprises demand multi-cloud solutions,” said Couturier. Interest in cloud networking as a service is also fueled by component shortages that are delaying shipments of networking hardware, hampering IT transformation projects. “With the Alkira solution, there is no hardware or software to install. Customers can provision capacity where they need it in minutes,” he added.

According to Gartner, “The cloud networking software market will reach $5.3 billion in 2030, up from $2 billion in 2021, with private cloud being the largest but most difficult segment to enter.” One of the leading drivers will be the desire to extend existing data center networks into the public cloud environment. “By 2025, 35% of companies using multiple public cloud providers will use a single network stack, a more than 10-fold increase from 2021.”

Paul Couturier, International Senior Vice President of Alkira

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