Aryaka is a company that pioneered the concept of a Zero Trust WAN based on a Unified SASE architecture. The company provides secure connectivity, enabling organizations to work from anywhere in the world without compromising application performance through its patented, integrated technology and services. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Aryaka chief product officer Renuka Nadkarni to learn more about the company.
Renuka Nadkarni’s Background
Nadkarni spent more than two decades in business leadership at the forefront of network and cybersecurity at companies ranging from start-ups to large, publicly traded companies and serving in roles involving business strategy, operations, and product management. And Nadkarni said:
“Prior to Aryaka, I served as CTO of Security at F5 Networks, where I was instrumental in driving F5’s foray into the security market. I led a team in developing innovative cybersecurity solutions, advised on M&As, ran a tight P&L, and helped build revenue generation. Before F5, I held various positions and built cutting-edge cloud and security products at VMware and Infoblox, and I also launched startups. Personally, I have always followed the evolution of various security technologies and was fortunate to be in the forefront of category-creating 1.0 technologies.”
“As the Chief Product Officer at Aryaka, I am responsible for defining the company’s vision and bringing it to life with execution across product management, CTO architects, engineering, and cloud operations.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Nadkarni’s favorite memory working for Aryaka so far? Nadkarni shared:
“One of my favorite memories is the engineering offsite session where we brought to life Aryaka’s single-pass architecture. We had team members from Bangalore, India; Hamburg, Germany; and the US office. It was a serene experience of collaborative intelligence outshining individual opinions. This gave birth to our groundbreaking integrated network and security architecture.”
Core Products
What are Aryaka’s core products and features? Nadkarni explained:
“1.) Aryaka’s Unified SASE solution is our core offering. Aryaka’s Unified SASE is a consumption-based SASE with a cloud-based delivery model fusing Network-as-a-Service and Network Security-as-a-Service. Our SASE service provides global network connectivity and secure internet access for users, sites, and applications anywhere and is delivered as a high-performance, scalable, and elastic cloud service with integrated lifecycle services. Aryaka’s SASE solution is based on Zero Trust principles and delivers secure internet access with URL filtering, content scanning, real-time threat intelligence, and cloudFirewall with unified policy enforcement across sites, users, and devices.”
“2.) Aryaka’s Managed SD-WAN Service leverages a high-performance global FlexCore network, providing enterprises with a resilient and adaptable network-as-a-service to connect sites, users, and clouds anywhere in the world. It is a turnkey SD-WAN service inter-connecting enterprise sites, hybrid workers, and cloud workloads, combined with world-class service, support, and a comprehensive set of SLAs befitting for the cloud-first era. SmartConnect includes sophisticated, patented end-to-end application and network optimization technology. Breakthrough end-to-end visibility and true control across all network segments and applications deliver an unmatched application experience.”
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges you face in building the company, and has the current macroeconomic climate had any effect on the company? Nadkarni acknowledged:
“In many ways, companies that began competing in the SASE space in the past four years were anticipating a shift in the way companies do business. The vision for SASE was to enable complex networks with hybrid environments, allowing customers to apply security controls across those networks ubiquitously. This digital transformation across markets was, of course, rapidly accelerated due to the pandemic. The near future goals of SASE became immediate needs of businesses everywhere.”
“In the same time frame, the state of cybercrime has not only escalated but has become more sophisticated. The challenge all SASE vendors face is meeting the velocity of market needs with both SASE capabilities and the structure of the business itself. This is no small task. That said, this challenge is also where the potential lies. We at Aryaka are fully invested in overcoming this challenge and believe we are well-positioned to maximize this opportunity that’s in front of us.”
Evolution Of Aryaka’s Technology
How has Aryaka’s technology evolved since launching? Nadkarni noted:
“A decade ago, Aryaka was centered around its SD-WAN offering to help customers solve their global network connectivity problems. These solutions were concerned with guaranteeing performance and low latency for workplaces with sizable workloads in the cloud and users in offices across regions. Early on, we realized that customers wanted Aryaka to offer security services to the traffic through our network. Accelerated by the acquisition of Secucloud in 2021, Aryaka launched into the SASE space and through our efforts in the past couple of years, we have progressed to a leader in Unified SASE solutions. We are currently in the process of building out a single-path architecture with security, so things should look very different for us in the next few months.”
“As a business, we take pride in our ability to constantly evolve to serve the changing needs of our customers and the market at large. As we like to say at Aryaka, digital transformation is a never-ending process. We have achieved great success to date using this approach, and it’s only becoming more necessary as technology speeds up exponentially and forces businesses to keep up. As we all saw very clearly during the pandemic – and it will hold true moving forward – those that aren’t set up for an environment of constant change are going to struggle to satisfy the needs of their customers.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Aryaka’s most significant milestones? Nadkarni cited:
“In Q1 of 2022, Aryaka launched its first all-in-one SD-WAN and SASE offering based on the Aryaka FlexCore as its underlying architecture, helping enterprises accelerate cloud adoption and increase business agility.”
“In October of 2022, Aryaka released a major update to its Zero Trust WAN with the inclusion of Secure Web Gateway and Firewall-as-a-Service. This integration is the first to enable enterprises to easily enforce security policies across offices and remote users with unified control.”
“In February this year, Aryaka announced that it was opening 27 new points of presence in 21 countries and in 15 major metropolitan areas, with the goal of delivering low-latency services to a broader potential client base.”
“Most recently, in December, we announced a significant deal with Cathay (part of Cathay Pacific Airlines), a leading premium travel lifestyle brand, to modernize its global network with Aryaka’s cutting-edge Unified SASE solutions for improved business performance and customer experience. Under the agreement, we’re providing converged networking, security, and observability services across Cathay’s global sites, which will help them be more agile, sustain growth, optimize costs, and enhance security for the wide spectrum of devices and users that access its network.”
Types Of Problems Solved
What types of business problems do you help customers solve? Nadkarni pointed out:
“We help customers solve the hardest business problems. Typically, our customers adopt Aryaka for global connectivity and MPLS renewal projects but quickly see value in providing cloud acceleration and SaaS acceleration.”
“This then evolves to more of a security and SASE journey. It’s a very typical route, which I call the collective SASE journey that we are on together with our customers. Another unique aspect is we meet customers where they are. As they are ready for a Firewall hardware refresh or renewal of their security subscription services, they gradually roll out Aryaka services.”
Revenue Information
After asking Nadkarni about revenue information, she shared:
“Aryaka was founded almost 15 years ago and has grown organically to cross $100 million in revenue about a couple of years ago. Since then, we have invested heavily into security development and fueled growth with profitability in mind. Unlike other companies in our space that grow at any cost and burn capital rapidly, we believe in building a robust and sustainable business with profitability. We are adequately funded and have a recurring revenue model that helps us sustain investments for growth.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Aryaka pursuing? Nadkarni assessed:
“Aryaka delivers a high-performance application experience with integrated security and, as such, targets the classic Telcos as well as security submarkets with tens of billions of dollars of TAM.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Aryaka from its competition? Nadkarni affirmed:
“Aryaka stands out among its peers both through service and capabilities. Built on Aryaka’s FlexCore global backbone network with over 40 and counting points of presence (PoPs) that reach over 95% of the global business population. With multiple levels of redundancy our underlying SD-WAN service has an over 99.999% uptime. Customers can connect to public clouds, SaaS providers or partner clouds, which provides a simplified and seamless connectivity as a managed service.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Aryaka’s future company goals? Nadkarni concluded:
“In addition to providing global network connectivity and security, Aryaka aspires to provide business intelligence to our customers with AI and observability. As a provider of network connectivity between all users and all applications of the customer, we have a tremendous advantage in providing deep insights to our customers on their business.”
