What is Alkira’s Cloud Network as-a-Service (CNaaS)?
Alkira’s Cloud Network as-a-Service (CNaaS) is a global, unified multi-cloud networking backbone delivered as a service. It enables seamless connectivity across single, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments by allowing customers to onboard cloud workloads (VPCs, VNETs, VCNs, etc.) and on-premises infrastructure to Alkira Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs). This approach consolidates and optimizes network infrastructure, simplifies routing, and centralizes management for enterprise connectivity. [Source]
How does Alkira’s approach to cloud connectivity differ from traditional CSP-native methods?
Unlike traditional CSP-native approaches that require complex, hop-by-hop routing and multiple networking constructs for each cloud and region, Alkira’s approach uses centralized CXPs that act as hubs for all cloud environments. This eliminates the need to deploy infrastructure in every region or CSP, simplifies routing, and allows seamless extension from single-region to multi-region or multi-cloud environments without manual configuration. [Source]
What products and services does Alkira offer?
Alkira offers Network Infrastructure-as-a-Service (NIaaS), Global Backbone-as-a-Service, integrated security features (such as Zero Trust Network Access and next-generation firewalls), a drag-and-drop interface for network design, comprehensive visibility tools, and flexible pricing models. These solutions are designed to simplify enterprise networking and connectivity challenges. [Platform Details]
Features & Capabilities
What are the key features of Alkira’s platform?
Key features include:
Network Infrastructure-as-a-Service (NIaaS) for hybrid and multi-cloud environments
Global Backbone-as-a-Service for scalable, low-latency connectivity
Integrated security with Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and next-generation firewalls
Drag-and-drop interface for easy network design and deployment
Alkira integrates with leading technology providers and platforms, including Cisco SD-WAN, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet NGFW, F5, Splunk, ServiceNow, Infoblox, Aruba SD-WAN, Terraform, and Itential Automation Platform. These integrations enable secure, scalable, and automated network management across enterprise environments. [Technology Partners]
Does Alkira provide APIs for integration and automation?
Yes, Alkira offers APIs, including billing APIs that provide real-time cloud network cost data for integration with cost management tools and dashboards. These APIs support automated monitoring and optimization of cloud costs. [API Details]
What technical documentation and resources are available for Alkira’s solutions?
Alkira provides whitepapers (e.g., On Demand Next-Generation Cloud Firewalls), solution briefs, and a dedicated wiki with detailed technical information. These resources help prospects and customers understand and evaluate Alkira’s solutions. [Solution Briefs] | [Wiki]
Pricing & Plans
What is Alkira’s pricing model?
Alkira offers flexible pricing, including consumption-based (pay-as-you-go) and commitment-based (fixed) options. Pricing is determined by the quantity and size of network elements (such as Alkira Cloud Exchange Points), connectors, next-generation firewalls, and data egress. Customers can view live pricing details from the portal or via APIs. [Pricing Details]
Use Cases & Benefits
What problems does Alkira solve for enterprises?
Alkira addresses:
Securing distributed workforces and applications with integrated ZTNA and firewalls
Reducing complexity in multi-cloud and hybrid networking
Providing comprehensive visibility and governance
Delivering high-performance, scalable networking
These solutions help enterprises accelerate digital transformation and maintain business resilience. [Solution Explainer]
Who can benefit from Alkira’s solutions?
Alkira is designed for mid-to-large enterprises across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, biotechnology, software technology, retail, media & entertainment, and aviation. Target roles include network architects, cloud architects, security architects, IT managers/directors, CloudOps, CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs. [Customer Stories]
What business impact can customers expect from Alkira?
Customers can expect:
Up to 96% reduction in cloud setup time
47% reduction in network management time
Up to 40% lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to traditional solutions
What feedback have customers given about Alkira’s ease of use?
Customers consistently praise Alkira for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and rapid deployment. For example, a network architect at a large manufacturer reported reducing a 6-month project to 3 days at low cost, and Koch Industries’ CTO described moving from months of complexity to a dashboard-based deployment in hours. [Testimonials]
Technical Requirements & Implementation
How long does it take to implement Alkira’s solution?
Customers can implement a proof of concept in as little as 4 hours, with full production deployment typically completed in about 8 weeks. The platform’s drag-and-drop interface and dedicated training resources make onboarding fast and straightforward. [Training Platform]
What resources and support are available to help customers get started?
Alkira provides a dedicated training platform with guidance, demos, and resources, 24×7 monitoring, and dedicated support. Customers can access live troubleshooting tools and receive proactive notifications about maintenance. [Training]
Security & Compliance
What security and compliance certifications does Alkira have?
Alkira is SOC 2 and PCI-DSS compliant, demonstrating a commitment to securing customer data and maintaining robust operational controls. The platform integrates advanced security features such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and next-generation firewalls. [Compliance Details]
How does Alkira ensure secure connectivity for distributed workforces and applications?
Alkira integrates Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and next-generation firewalls directly into its platform, eliminating vulnerabilities found in traditional VPNs and perimeter-based security models. This ensures secure, seamless access for distributed teams and applications. [ZTNA Solution]
Support & Maintenance
What customer support is available after purchasing Alkira?
Alkira offers proactive notifications for maintenance, a diagnostics dashboard for live troubleshooting, 24×7 monitoring, and dedicated support via email or support tickets. These services ensure smooth operations and rapid issue resolution. [Contact Support]
How does Alkira handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?
Alkira provides advance notifications for planned or emergency maintenance, continuous monitoring, and a diagnostics dashboard for visibility into network flows. Customers can report issues or seek assistance at any time. [Support]
Competition & Comparison
How does Alkira compare to Aviatrix?
Aviatrix focuses on orchestration overlays and requires deep cloud expertise for deployment. Alkira provides a true abstraction layer leveraging cloud providers' infrastructure, offers single-click provisioning, and delivers end-to-end solutions for both cloud and traditional network use cases. [Comparison Details]
How does Alkira compare to Prosimo?
Prosimo is application-centric and limited in addressing traditional network use cases. Alkira provides full-stack networking and security, addressing both cloud and traditional network needs, and offers scalable networks. [Comparison Details]
How does Alkira compare to Nefeli?
Nefeli uses agent-based solutions and requires manual configurations. Alkira eliminates manual configurations with automated routing, provides enterprise-grade connectivity, and delivers a unified platform for network infrastructure as-a-service. [Comparison Details]
How does Alkira compare to Cato?
Cato focuses on SD-WAN and is limited in multi-cloud and hybrid environments. Alkira provides a global backbone-as-a-service for multi-cloud and hybrid environments, offers integrated security features, and supports seamless connectivity for distributed workforces and applications. [Comparison Details]
Company & Vision
What is Alkira’s vision and mission?
Alkira’s vision is to transform enterprise connectivity by simplifying cloud networking for the AI era. Its mission is to eliminate the complexity of traditional hardware-dependent networking by providing a cloud-native solution that seamlessly connects hybrid and multi-cloud environments through a unified control plane. [Company Page]
What recognition and awards has Alkira received?
Alkira has been named among America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes, recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor, and received the 2024 Excellence Award from Cloud Computing Magazine. It was also listed on CRN’s 2023 Stellar Startups List. [Company Page]
Industries & Case Studies
Which industries are represented in Alkira’s case studies?
Industries include manufacturing, retail, healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, biotechnology/life sciences, software technology, media & entertainment, and aviation. [Case Studies]
Seamless Single and Multi-Cloud Connectivity with Alkira’s Cloud Network as-a-Service
Summarize with AI
Alkira’s Cloud Network-as-a-Service is the first global unified multi-cloud networking backbone delivered as a service.
Alkira allows customers to use a One Architecture approach to quickly onboard their cloud workload (VPCs, VNETs, VCNs, etc.) to the Alkira Cloud Exchange Points (CXPs) and consolidate or optimize their infrastructure footprint. Alkira CNaaS offers the same approach for connecting on-premise infrastructure to Alkira CXPs by leveraging various methods, including AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Routes, and IPsec/SD-WAN Connections from their DCs and branches.
Alkira’s solution also allows customers who would like to inspect the traffic between on-premise to cloud or multi-cloud environments to use a policy-driven framework to inspect traffic as per the requirements.
Before we jump into the Alkira Approach, let’s look at the CSP Native approach to solve the different use cases for Cloud connectivity.
In the traditional Cloud Service Provider (CSP) approach for single cloud region connectivity, a CSP native transit construct provides connectivity to VPC/VNET/VCNs. There is a security VPC/VNET as well for traffic inspection.
The routing needs to be set up hop-by-hop for each VPC/VNETs/VCN within the region and on the CSP Transit to ensure end-to-end connectivity works as expected. The transit routing needs to be set up depending on the specific CSP to establish connectivity.Figure 1: Cloud-native connectivity for a single region
Case 2: Single Cloud Multi Region connectivity
In this case, multiple CSP transits will be used to connect multiple regions. As in the previous case, hop-by-hop routing will be needed for each of the specific VPC/VNET/VCN and the CSP transit. The multi-region connectivity will also involve establishing peering connections between the multiple transits in different regions to establish end-to-end connectivity.Figure 2: Cloud-native connectivity for single cloud and multi-region
Case 3: Multi-Cloud, Multi-Region Connectivity
In this case, multiple CSP transits will be used to connect multiple regions as in the previous case; in addition to achieving connectivity between multiple clouds either via private connectivity (Direct Connect/Express Route) or public internet (IPsec), routing will need to be set up on the CSP transits. Also, users must set up redundant connections between multiple clouds to consider redundancy requirements.
Figure 3: Multi-Cloud connectivity
Problem with this Approach:
Design Challenge
When a large-scale deployment is done, the design will look different for the above three use cases. In a single cloud with multiple regions, setting up the routing between transit constructs becomes a challenge depending on the number of regions. The challenges are even more significant if the same design is used in a multi-cloud environment.
Operational Complexity
Managing route tables across multiple regions or clouds brings an operational challenge where the user must configure the next hop for traffic flows at multiple places to get the end-to-end traffic flow working.
Configuration
Different CSPs have different networking constructs in a multi-cloud environment, so configuring each will be complex, and managing these resources will be time-consuming. Also, each CSP has its own set of limitations for these resources, which creates a design problem for solving different use cases.
Visibility/Troubleshooting
Visibility into traffic is a challenge in any CSP environment, which creates a problem in troubleshooting connectivity issues. Since multiple networking constructs exist in each CSP, figuring out where the issue lies is a challenge.
The Alkira Approach is Different
The Alkira approach is different because CXPs can be deployed in regions depending on where the workloads or applications exist. The CXPs do not need to be deployed in all of the regions or CSPs; this gives flexibility to the user to deploy the Alkira CXP closer to their critical applications or workloads agnostic to the CSP presence.
The Alkira CXPs act as the centralized hub for these cloud environments, and hence routing is simplified where multiple next hops do not need to be configured.
Whether the deployment is in a single-cloud or multi-cloud environment, the CXPs can handle traffic from all regions. Another advantage is that the connectivity can be seamlessly extended from a single region to a multi-region or to a multi-cloud environment without configuring multiple CSP constructs and the routing for each of these constructs.Figure 4: Multi-Cloud connectivity using Alkira CXPs
Alkira Solution Benefits:
Cost-Effective
In the Alkira solution, CXPs can be set up based on customer requirements and user connectivity. Hence, deploying the CXPs in every region and CSP is optional. The CXP can be the centralized hub for multi-region and multi-cloud connectivity.
Optimized & Efficient Design
From a design perspective, having Alkira CXPs makes managing the routing and traffic flows for a multi-region and multi-cloud environment simpler and easier to scale.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting tools such as Packet capture, flow capture, ping, and traceroute are part of the solution and help find the root cause of connectivity issues, making managing this complex ecosystem a breeze!
Schedule a demo today, and our team of experts will be happy to show you how Alkira can provide seamless connectivity for multi-cloud environments.
Ahmed Abeer is a Sr. Product Manager at Alkira, where he is responsible for building a best-in-class Multi-Cloud Networking and Security Product. He has been in Product Management for more than ten years in different big and small organizations. He has worked with large enterprise and service provider customers to enable LTE/5G MPLS network infrastructure, automate Layer 3 Data Center, enable Next-Gen Multi-Cloud architecture, and define customers' Multi-Cloud strategies. Ahmed's technical expertise in Cloud Computing and Layer 2/Layer 3 network technologies. Ahmed is a public speaker at various conferences & forums and holds a Master's Degree in Computer Engineering.
DK
About the author
Deepesh Kumar
Deepesh Kumar is a Solutions Architect and product specialist in the computer networking industry with over 8 years of experience. He currently works as part of the post sales team at Alkira and focuses on working with customers to design and deploy the Alkira solution. Prior to working here, he worked at Viptela which was acquired by Cisco Systems. He holds a masters degree from San Jose State University.
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Figure 1: Cloud-native connectivity for a single region
Figure 2: Cloud-native connectivity for single cloud and multi-region
Figure 4: Multi-Cloud connectivity using Alkira CXPs
