Arrcus、シリーズBを3,000万ドル調達、5Gネットワーキング製品を展開

新製品の1つは、ArrcusのハードウェアにとらわれないオペレーティングシステムとBroadcomのマーチャントシリコンを組み合わせたもので、もう1つはAIベースの分析プラットフォームです。Arrcus, the white box startup taking on Cisco, closed a $30 million Series B funding round and rolled out new networking products: 100 gigabit and 400G Ethernet routers for hyperscale cloud, edge, and 5G networks, and an artificial-intelligence (AI)-based analytics platform. The first product combines Arrcus’ hardware-agnostic operating system, ArcOS, with Broadcom’s merchant silicon, its Jericho2 switch-router system-on-a-chip (SoC). Arrcus says its software running on Jericho2 provides faster network speeds — up to 10 terabits per second switching capacity — which delivers five times the performance compared to the previous generation of Jericho silicon. The hardware plus ArcOS also gives users a four-fold increase in port density per chip compared to the previous generation of Jericho and a higher route table scale, the vendor claims. This helps cloud providers and network operators meet the high-bandwidth, low-latency requirements of 5G networks and edge computing, said Devesh Garg, cofounder and CEO of Arrcus. “People are saying I want to bring those functions that users need closer to the users,” Garg said. “I want to bring the compute and storage tier closer to the users and subscribers, and when I do that I need to connect all those subscribers back to the mother ship.” Historically, networking vendors like Cisco, Arista Networks, and Juniper Networks used proprietary application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to solve this problem. “Now, for the first time, you have a merchant silicon supplier that has comparable capabilities and it making them available to the mass market,” Garg said. “But that alone is not enough. It’s like having a machine gun with no bullets in it. ArcOS posted onto Jericho2 unleashes all these capabilities.” The second product, ArcIQ, uses AI-driven analytics to provide real-time visibility, control, and security for network operations teams. “Visibility, control, and security were the three key principles that customers told us they wanted built into their networking solutions,” said Murali Gandluru, vice president of product management at Arrcus. The open, standards-based platform integrates with third-party monitoring systems and can be deployed either on premises or in the cloud. Network devices stream state-based information from the control and data planes, as well as environmental information, and ArcIQ detects anomalies and provides visualization for corrective actions. The San Jose, California-based company got its start in 2016, and launched its first product, ArcOS, a year ago.  It followed that up with 400G Ethernet switches in January. “When we started the company, the idea was we wanted to create an independent network operating system that could run on any hardware and use any underlying components,” Garg said. “We saw all this innovation at the silicon level — the missing link was the software. So we said let’s solve that software problem and create a viable alternative to Cisco and Arista that can run on any hardware.” At the time of its ArcOS launch, Arrcus also announced that it scored $15 million in Series A funding from General Catalyst and Clear Ventures. The Series B funding, which was an oversubscribed round, brings the total capital raised to $49 million. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Series B, and it included full participation from existing investors General Catalyst and Clear Ventures. Additionally, Guru Chahal, a partner at Lightspeed, joins General Catalyst Managing Director Steve Herrod and Chris Rust, founder and general partner at Clear Ventures, on the Arrcus board of directors. Arrcus plans to use the new capital to double the size of the company, growing it from 50 employees now to 100 during the next six to 12 months, Garg said. He won’t disclose the company’s valuation, but said Arrcus does have revenue, it has “10-plus” customers, between 20 and 25 active proof of concepts, “and a rich-opportunity pipeline behind that. When you get $30 million of funding, it’s over-subscribed with participation from all of your existing investors, it’s a testimonial to the product efficacy.”