Arrcus looks at enterprise multicloud networks with FlexMCN

Digital transformation is redefining business communication, storage and workflow, especially thanks to technologies such as cloud networking. Gartner estimates that while several thousand customers have deployed multicloud networking software (MCNS) — formerly commonly referred to as cloud networking software — more companies are expected to adopt MCNS in a market expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30% through 2026.

Arrcus, a California-based network software company, is looking to cement its stake in this growing market with a new product designed to help cloud solution providers (CSPs), colocation providers and telcos deliver multicloud connectivity as a managed service to enterprises. In a press release today, the company said the new product, Arrcus FlexMCN, will help businesses support the rapid growth of applications and data in distributed locations around the world by leveraging its hyperscale multicloud networking solution with reliable scale, predictable performance and seamless orchestration.

In February, Arrcus announced an upgrade to version 2.0 of its flagship Arrcus Connected Edge (ACE) platform, a computing platform designed to support more flexible network configurations and intelligent embedded applications in the ACE network. The new Arrcus FlexMCN ​​is the next step in realizing Arrcus’ mission to improve business efficiency through “superior network connectivity,” said Shekar Ayyar, CEO and Chairman of Arrcus. Built on Arrcus’ ACE platform, the Arrcus FlexMCN ​​is available in a wide variety of forms, including containers, virtual machines (VM), software on white-box hardware, and the cloud.

Multi-tenant support

The Arrcus FlexMCN ​​is focused on providing multi-tenancy support that enables the tenant isolation and network segmentation that large enterprises need. It also provides role-based access control (RBAC), enabling granular access to the network infrastructure and preventing accidental malicious access. Multi-tenancy also allows managed service providers to share the FlexMCN ​​ArcOrchestrator with multiple tenants and allows each tenant to view its network infrastructure in the orchestrator.

With this announcement, Arrcus FlexMCN ​​promises to drastically reduce the installation time of multicloud networks from days to hours. Arrcus claims that FlexMCN ​​enables it to operationally simplify ongoing management by automating and orchestrating with popular frameworks such as HashiCorp Terraform, Ansible Playbooks, and REST APIs. The company also says it can enable distributed network connections between clouds, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Arrcus FlexMCN ​​- on premise and in the cloud

In addition, Arrcus FlexMCN ​​will accelerate the deployment of cloud operations and provide the flexibility to deploy multicloud network controllers in customers’ private clouds (on-premises or in a data center) or public clouds to connect private and public cloud workloads, according to the company.

Ayyar says that “CSPs, colocation providers and telcos have the opportunity to create new revenue streams with the delivery of secure multicloud connectivity-as-a-service to enterprises.”

Arrcus claims it enables the delivery of multicloud connectivity-as-a-service, but also solves problems related to data privacy and sharing. Roy Chua, founder and director at research agency AvidThinksaid in the press release that “as a result of its high-end programmability, Arrcus FlexMCN ​​offers the flexibility to deploy on-premises or in the cloud, allowing select industry verticals to continue to comply with GDPR and HIPAA requirements.”

Arrcus will prioritize service providers, partners and customers when rolling out the FlexMCN. Other vendors competing with Arrcus in the market include Alkira, Cisco, Arista, Aviatrix, Cohesive Networks, F5, Prosimo, and VMware.