Graphiant is a provider of next-generation Edge services, which has developed the Graphiant Network Edge, an “as-a-Service” solution that provides connectivity between the enterprise WAN, hybrid cloud, network edge, customers, and partners. To learn more about the company, Pulse 2.0 interviewed founder and CEO Khalid Raza.
Khalid Raza’s Background
In the late 1990s, Raza was part of the team at Cisco that designed, built and delivered the largest Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks. “In fact, I have several patents related to it. We built MPLS to provide fast, reliable, and secure networking for enterprises; the technology took off like wildfire,” said Raza. “However, as business networks grew, MPLS became too expensive and too slow to deploy. Thus, in 2012, I co-founded Viptela, where we introduced SDWAN, which could improve agility since the network was software-defined. It also allowed businesses to use public internet broadband for less critical traffic in order to dramatically lower costs
Formation Of Graphiant
How did the idea for Graphiant come together? “Networks have changed dramatically. In the past, enterprise networks were much simpler: a few data centers, some remote offices, and a means for employees to connect from the road,” Raza pointed out. “However, today, we must connect to multiple clouds, incorporate SaaS apps, have thousands of remote workers, integrate edge compute, and connect to various partner and customer networks. Also, data is no longer exclusively in the data center – it is now spread across the world in “centers of data’ (cloud, edge networks, IoT, etc.).”
Building complex networks on this scale using MPLS or SDWAN no longer works, according to Raza. It is far too expensive and takes too long to deploy and make changes. In short, businesses required MPLS’ performance, the agility SDWAN promised (but never delivered), and a dramatically lower price point.
“The only way to achieve this was to build a private network and let businesses consume this “as-a-Service” network from a simple cloud portal-similar to how this is currently done for compute and storage,” Raza added. “In September 2022, Graphiant introduced a new way to network. Instead of building a bespoke network, IT provisions it from a cloud portal, establishes policies on that portal, and connects the enterprise network edge to Graphiant’s Network Core.”
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges Raza faced in building the company and has the current macroeconomic climate had any effect on the company?
“Graphiant was founded in 2020 during the Covid pandemic lockdown. This affected how we built the company because we were 100% remote. We were free to hire the best people regardless of location and forced us to be a global company from our first day. In this way, what was a challenge made us better,” Raza acknowledged. “The recent macroeconomic challenges have again been positive for us. The Graphiant service delivers tremendous TCO savings to customers. As enterprises prepare for uncertain economic conditions, they look for ways to reduce costs, and Graphiant offers that.”
Core Products
What are Graphiant’s core products and features? “The Graphiant architecture enables enterprises to connect to a shifting landscape of clouds, partners, customer sites, and IoT devices with the agility required to operate at the speed of business. With data moving away from centralized silos as endpoints generate and consume it at the edge, Graphiant removes the complexity of disparate networking technologies and large sets of difficult-to-manage tunnels. Businesses benefit from shortened lead times to deliver new services and fewer resources occupied with daily moves, adds, and changes to support shifting needs,” Raza replied. “For any-to-any connectivity with the agility to harness constant change, the Graphiant solution is provided as a cloud-delivered service. It is built explicitly to provide high-performance private connectivity without requiring advanced configuration of tunnels or other static routes. The entirety of this Graphiant solution stack is built without using any specialized hardware. It relies solely on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), general-purpose servers based on Intel architecture, sharing resources with other enterprise solutions and benefiting from the Intel platform roadmap and the broader Intel ecosystem.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Graphiant’s most significant milestones? Raza pointed out that since its launch in September of 2022, Graphiant has achieved major milestones:
-Co-development and deployments with numerous enterprise customers
-Graphiant Stateless core deployed in North America
-Technical partnership announced with Intel
-Graphiant G-Force Partner Program launched
Funding
On March 28th, Graphiant announced a $62 million Series B funding round based on Graphiant’s strong traction in both enterprise and service provider markets. And the round brings the company’s total funding to $96 million. The funding will be used for enabling continued growth as Graphiant’s next-gen architecture gains momentum.
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Graphiant pursuing?
“The Graphiant Network service crosses several markets that industry analysts state is well over $50 billion in TAM,” Raza estimated.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Graphiant from its competition? “Graphiant’s Network Edge service provides MPLS-like performance with the agility that can only be delivered ‘as-a-Service.’ This unique combination is enabled by the technical innovation Graphiant is delivering and cannot be done with traditional networking technologies,” Raza replied.
Future Company Goals
What are some of Graphiant’s future company goals. “Graphiant is growing our enterprise and service provider customer base with the goal of delivering an internet-like connectivity solution for businesses,” Raza concluded. “Imagine a world where the network you use to securely connect your resources already has the service you consume from business partners available to subscribe to. Rather than managing separate networks for site connectivity, cloud connectivity, and business partner connections, enterprises could subscribe to a single network service and get all those things. Companies could just subscribe and consume, not build and maintain.”
