Cloud Networking Firm Pertino Raises $8.9 Million in Funding
Pertino Networks, a Silicon Valley-based cloud networking company, has announced its initial Series A round of venture capital funding. Norwest Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners have invested $8.85 million in the new firm, whose stated goal is “reinventing business networking for the cloud era.”
According to the press release, Pertino will use the funding to “expand engineering and go-to-market resources.”
“The cloud and ‘as-a-service’ delivery models have transformed the IT landscape from a computing, storage and application perspective while, at the same time, the network paradigm has changed little,” said Pertino CEO Craig Elliott in a prepared statement. “As a result, networks that once enabled businesses now constrain them when it comes to harnessing the disruptive capabilities and economies of the cloud. Pertino Networks was founded to radically simplify and alter the economics of business networks by bringing them into the cloud era.”
Disrupting and altering the economics of business networks sounds like a tall order, and I plan to keep my eyes peeled for news coming from Pertino. Here is the company’s own business model description:
“By leveraging disruptive technologies and precepts from cloud computing, virtualization and social networks, Pertino is reinventing networking for the cloud era in terms of simplicity, security and flexibility. Its cloud networking software radically simplifies the way businesses securely connect their people and partners with the IT resources they need onsite, on the road, and in the cloud.”
Before I start dropping names, allow me to roll out the tech world red carpet. Along with Elliot, who is former CEO of Packeteer, other tech industry notables and investors participating in the Series A round include Steve Campbell, former CEO of Stratacom; Joe Graziano, former CFO of Apple and Sun Microsystems; Rob Ryan, former CEO of Ascend Communications; Peter Wagner, former general partner at Accel Partners; Gaurav Garg, of Sequoia Ventures; and Jeffrey Drazan, managing partner at Bertram Capital.
