Pensando Raises $145 million in Series C Funding (Total at $278 Million), Emerging From Stealth

Pensando Systems, Inc., in the new edge services model of enterprise and cloud computing, emerged from stealth to unveil its distributed software-defined platform that can transform legacy architectures into next-gen clouds without costly added investment or disruption.

Concurrently, the company announced that Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lightspeed Venture Partners have led a series C round to raise up to $145 million in funding. This will bring the total amount raised to $278 million after an earlier founder-led series A round of $71 million in 2017, and a customer-led series B round of $62 million in 2018.

Its platform delivers programmable software-defined cloud, compute, networking, storage and security services wherever data is located. This capability means that cloud providers can now gain a technological advantage over the current market leader, AWS Nitro, delivering 5-9x improvements in productivity, performance and scale when compared to current architectures with no risk of lock-in.

In addition, existing enterprises can transform their current infrastructure into a cloud-like environment, eliminating multiple legacy appliances, improving operational simplicity and security while at the same time delivering never before seen functionality, performance, cost, scale and observability.

Pensando has the a secure, programmable, edge-accelerated platform that addresses the genal shift occurring as data pushes to the edge of the cloud. Its foundation is a custom, programmable processor optimized to execute a software stack delivering cloud, compute, networking, storage and security services wherever data is located.

This combination is built to address requirements
of next-gen cloud infrastructure, providing:

5-9x current performance, scalability, latency and jitter
Software-defined services, always-on, wherever you need them
Enterprise-grade security everywhere
End-to-end telemetry and deep observability across the entire infrastructure
Centrally-managed, automated control of all policies and lifecycle management via the Venice or custom/third-party controllers
1/3 power usage of existing solutions

“The team behind Pensando has worked together for more than twenty-five years and have an unmatched track record of disruptive innovation,” said John Chambers, chairman of Pensando, CEO of JC2 Ventures and former CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc. “We are enabling a broad range of ecosystem partners and customers including cloud, enterprises, SP’s and technology companies to deploy cloud architectures that give them the ability to compete in the next big market transition as the world goes multi-cloud. Put together, it’s no wonder that Pensando is coming out of the gate with a marquis list of investors, partners, and customers. This team is an execution machine that has never missed.”

“Advances in emerging technologies such as 5G, IoT, and AI, are accelerating data growth and changing not just how we consume data but where we consume it. Computing is migrating to where the data is,” said Prem Jain, CEO, Pensando. “New deployment models driven by this shift are no longer just about moving workloads to the cloud but moving scalable services closer to data, regardless of where it resides. This tectonic change is breaking existing infrastructure and requires an entirely new, future-proof architecture designed for the next gen of the cloud. Pensando is the answer: we are democratizing the cloud with the first software-defined, edge-accelerated, always secure and visible platform that will run in any environment.”

“The future belongs to those who are first to harness the power of data,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO, HPE. “Today, customers leverage HPE edge centric, cloud enabled and data driven solutions to harness the power of that data to bring insights and innovation across their distributed enterprise. The combination of HPE software defined compute, storage, networking, security services with Pensando technology will equip HPE’s customers with ways to act fast on a continuous stream of data that grows richer every day.”

Pensando Edge Services Platform – Powering Enterprise Computing
5G, IoT, AI, and massive application growth are transforming the way modern enterprises operate, from manufacturing to warehouses and logistics to delivering services to end users. By 2025 upwards of 75% of enterprise data will be created and processed at the edge, according to Gartner, creating significant challenges for existing infrastructure. This change is driving modern data centers to a scale out approach and will also require scale-out services.

Pensando is a secure, programmable, edge-accelerated platform that directly addresses the genal shift occurring as data pushes to the edge of the cloud. The foundation of the platform is a custom, programmable processor optimized to execute a software stack delivering cloud, compute, networking, storage and security services wherever data is located, all managed via the Venice Centralized Policy and Services Controller:

Naples 100 and Naples 25 – Installed in standard servers, the Naples Distributed Services Card (DSC) delivers high-performance cloud, compute, networking, storage and security functions, eliminating an assortment of discrete appliances throughout the data center. The result delivers cloud-like capabilities and scalability with operational simplicity.
Software-defined services, where you need them: customizable distributed infrastructure – across cloud, compute, networking, storage, security, and virtual appliances – empowers businesses to compete in the next big market transition
Edge-acceleration, wherever data exists: scales out linearly with any server environment and minimizes latency and jitter while freeing up expensive hardware resources like general-purpose CPU cycles
Runs on anything, anywhere: compatible with virtualized or bare-metal servers as well as containerized workloads
Venice – Centrally-managed enterprise-grade security and visibility at every level of the stack enables seamless distribution of all infrastructure services policies to active Naples nodes. In addition, Venice handles lifecycle management such as deploying in-service software upgrades to Naples nodes and delivers always-on telemetry, deep end-to-end observability, and operational simplicity across the environment.

“From day one, everything we do from product development to go-to-market has been focused on the success of our customers and partners,” said Soni Jiandani, Pensando co-founder and chief business officer. “Today’s announcement, with 6 leading customers, investors and partners is a testament to our commitment to successful customer outcomes, it is in the DNA of our company.”

Pensando empowers cloud providers to compete with AWS
Cloud providers have entered a new realm when it comes to customer requirements, accountability and availability: cloud infrastructure now serves as the backbone for countless businesses, government agencies, and global enterprises. As cloud infrastructure growth continues to accelerate – driven by customers increasing adoption of hybrid cloud architectures – the performance, scalability and functionality demands on cloud providers will grow exponentially.

The Pensando Edge Services Platform provides an optimized programmable suite of software-defined cloud, compute, networking, storage, security, and telemetry services. The Pensando DSC operates at 100Gb wire-speed with performance, low-latency, low-jitter, and high level of scalability, designed by and for the largest cloud providers. A key value of the DSC is the comprehensive number of services offered simultaneously, and also in the ability to chain disparate services together in any order, without loss of performance at 100Gb/s, and with almost zero jitter.

Gives cloud providers the ability to compete on a level playing field with AWS
Visibility and policy-based services management at scale, all managed via open APIs
Distributed secure edge, wire-speed encryption, and hardware isolation
Future-proofing with P4 programmability that supports the development and delivery of new services and protocols
A reduction in CPU usage of 20-40%, enabling more revenue per server with less power consumption

Pensando is a choice for forward-thinking enterprises

Eliminates the need for legacy appliances including firewalls, load balancers, encryption devices, and more
Powers software-defined services at every node with cloud performance
Creates simple datacenter architectures that integrate with existing frameworks and feature always-on, end-to-end telemetry and centralized security policy management
Guarantees security – inherited from existing infrastructure – and compliance for all traffic, scaling across every host
Hosting model agnostic empowering enterprises to rapidly deploy new services

“Goldman Sachs is simplifying our data center architecture and reducing expenses with Pensando,” said Joshua Matheus, MD, Goldman Sachs. “Pensando allows us to secure our east-west data center traffic while ensuring compliance, and at the same time, with improved telemetry, we reduce our time-to-problem resolution from hours to minutes.”

Pensando fuels service providers

Network slicing and scale, latency, and jitter means fast service
Fully-distributed firewall, load-balancing, and SDN services – along with centralized policy automation – enable the deployment of 5G services at scale
Terminating and encrypting one billion IoT connections can be done in only half a rack of servers
Service providers can future-proof with P4 programmability and support the development of new services and protocols
Reduce capital expenditures and power consumption

Pensando Systems
Founded in 2017, it is in distributed computing designed for the New Edge, powering software-defined cloud, compute, networking, storage and security services to transform existing architectures into the secure, fast environments demanded by next gen applications. Its platform was developed in collaboration with the world’s largest cloud, enterprise, storage, and telecommunications leaders and is supported by partnerships with HPE, NetApp, Equinix, and multiple Fortune 500 customers. The company is led by Silicon Valley’s MPLS team – Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain, Luca Cafiero, Soni Jiandani and Randy Pond – who have a record of innovation having already built $8 billion/year businesses across storage, switching, routing, wireless, voice/video/data, an software-defined networking. The company is backed by investors that include Goldman Sachs and JC2 Ventures.