SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nile, a new provider of enterprise networking technology and services, today emerged from stealth to announce it has completely redesigned the network and overall operations experience to deliver a more secure wired and wireless service. Defined by an audacious vision to remove human dependence from management of the network, Nile’s clean-sheet approach does to networking what the cloud did to computing and storage. By bringing a relentless focus on disruptive simplicity, Nile will forever change how organizations design, acquire, deploy, secure, and maintain connectivity through an offering that:
- Shifts the dynamic of the network from security worry to security “force multiplier” with the first Zero Trust Network that requires no network operations;
- Delivers a holistic, pay-as-you-use consumption model that aligns simply to users on the network;
- Uniquely guarantees network performance levels based on outcomes that matter – availability, capacity, and coverage;
- Removes operational overhead and reduces risk by delivering complete lifecycle management without the management, with a “self-driven” network customer experience backed by extensive use of monitoring, analytics, and AI/ML-driven automation.
“This journey is all about a once in a decade opportunity to create something disruptive -- not just for the sake of disruption -- but to create something that can resolve the complexity of networking and deliver simple access to a very reliable, extremely high-performance network – and we’ve done it,” said Pankaj Patel, CEO, and co-founder of Nile. “Why is that important? Because while the world has changed, networking largely hasn’t. Of the $25 billion in hardware spent each year in wired and wireless access technology, we estimate another $75 billion is spent in operations. This simply isn’t sustainable, yet the entrenched incumbents have not responded, with business models, ecosystems, and an installed base to protect and they’d have to completely re-engineer their own existing platforms. Nile changes that – now watch us grow.”
Nile: Founded by Network Pioneers and Visionaries to Lead the Network Market Transition
Nile was formed by co-founders Pankaj Patel (former EVP and Chief Development Officer at Cisco) and John Chambers (former Executive Chairman and CEO at Cisco), who have worked together for nearly 25 years as one of the network industry’s most powerful leadership duos and developed some of the most significant innovations in the network and communications industries. Nile comes to market with:
- Experienced engineers among 170 employees;
- Unprecedented innovation and IP based upon 40 patents (awarded or filed);
- Backed by $125 million in funding from March Capital, 8VC, JC2 Ventures, and ICONIQ, among others; and
- 50+ partners in place at time of launch, including network ecosystem leaders like Presidio and CBTS, among others.
“Our currency is very simple: We have the track record, we have the relationships, and we have the trust that almost nobody else has in the network industry,” said John Chambers, co-founder of Nile, and founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. “This is a market that is ripe for disruption because the traditional players have lost track of where they are, slowly evolving their products, adding immense complexity, and they kept doing the same things for far too long. The incumbents have missed what the real customer desire is: simplicity. Nile enters the market with the license and the experience to disrupt the status quo.”
A New Approach to Security Based on the Principles of Zero Trust
CIOs and CISOs have long viewed the network as one of the greatest single sources of security risk, conflict, and workload in the enterprise. Nile’s approach creates the first out-of-the-box Zero Trust network with no network operations required – each user and device is automatically segmented, and every request must be authenticated and evaluated before access is granted. The result reduces the risk of cyber thieves from spreading laterally to deliver ransomware attacks. Additionally, without any complex configuration, security teams can ensure that all connections are seen and controlled no matter where they are in the network.
“Zero Trust has long been a goal of many organizations, one that required a lot of network engineering time and focus, and still rarely achieved its full potential,” said Andy Goodenow, Chief Information Officer at University of Missouri-Kansas City. “Nile’s holistic approach to security solves the missing link for extending Zero Trust into the network.”
A Consumption-Based aaS Model Backed by Guaranteed Performance
The timing of Nile’s emergence is no accident, planned by the company to unveil a unique consumption-based approach just as customers seek for their networks the same benefits realized from similar inflection points in cloud-based storage and software. Nile’s holistic approach combines design, hardware, software, installation, maintenance, and ongoing management into a simple pay-as-you-use model. Organizations no longer need to make large upfront capital investments while trying to anticipate needs over the next 5, 7, or even 10 years. Nile will simply add or change capacity and coverage as needs evolve for each individual customer.
Complete Lifecycle Management without the Management
Nile’s cloud-native design includes deep physical and virtual instrumentation that provides continuous monitoring, extensive analytics, and AI/ML-driven automation. The result is a self-driven network that’s always optimizing for maximum performance. Software upgrades and security patching are carefully orchestrated and delivered through automation to prevent disruption to users and devices, with Nile having full responsibility to manage the network so customers can focus on their own business growth.
“As CIO, it’s critical that my IT resources are focused on SDI’s core mission and growth, and not tied up in maintaining the health and security of our network,” said Neil Clover, Chief Technology Officer at SDI, a digital supply chain leader. “As a business, SDI delivers value to our customers with an as-a-service approach to MRO (maintenance, repair, operations) supply chain, so we understand the aaS benefits of predictable costs, reduced operating expenses, and the financial model shift from CapEx to OpEx. Like so many CIOs, I want these same benefits from my infrastructure investments. Our Nile network is delivering on those expectations: we get scalable high performance, improved security, we don’t worry about running our network any longer, and we only pay for what we use and need.”
Simply Different: An Ecosystem Ready for Disruption
In a related announcement, Nile outlined Connect, its ecosystem partner program. Highlighting relationships with 50+ channel companies, Nile Connect already includes some of the most respected partners in the network industry known for leading large scale IT transformations, who will represent Nile solutions to customers in North America.
“We are incredibly excited about the prospect of bringing such an innovative and differentiated offering to customers,” said Dave Hart, President and COO of Presidio, the leading global digital services and solutions provider. “Nile offers what many of our customers have been asking for – a simple approach to IT infrastructure that provides a scalable operating model combining innovative technology for deployment, monitoring and support with a predictable financial model that removes the operational and financial headaches of owning and supporting the network. At the same time, Nile’s leadership is equally committed to the success, profitability, and differentiation of its partners, which is always welcome news in this industry. We see Nile’s offer as a real win-win for Presidio and our customers.”
Nile’s solution for campus LAN and WLAN are currently available in the United States and Canada, with international markets coming online in the coming months. For more information on Nile, see nilesecure.com.
About Nile
Nile is redefining the network experience for customers with disruptive simplicity, delivering true network-as-a-service consumption, built in hardened security, lifecycle management without the management and backed by the industry’s only verified, performance-based SLAs. For more information, see nilesecure.com.
