10 Emerging Networking And VoIP Vendors You Need To Know About

No Failures To Communicate Here

You might think communications and networking are pretty much old hat with little room for innovation. But as the number and scope of devices that need to be connected and communicate explodes, so does the demand for new ways to connect everything from mobile devices, to smart homes, to cloud-based IT systems.

Software-defined networking is hot as IT departments look for simpler, lower-cost ways to deliver network functionality. And while the Internet-of-Things is still more of a market forecast than a reality, businesses are gearing up to be ready to handle the expected flood of data flowing through their networks.

Here's a look at 10 emerging vendors that are making connections with the future of networking and communications.

Aspenta

Atlanta

Top Executive: CEO Walid Moneimne

Aspenta is a mobile network operator and Internet-of-Things technology developer enabling connectivity for machine-to-machine devices. The vendor's product portfolio includes consumer and business applications, such as fleet tracking and logistics management software, a customizable and scalable IoT platform, remote gateways, and global roaming voice, data and M2M SIM cards.

The company's new Vectu Smart Home technology provides consumers with a way to access and control smart home devices, from alarm systems, thermostats, door locks, wireless switches and more.

Big Switch Networks

Santa Clara, Calif.

Top Executive: CEO Douglas Murray

Big Switch Networks is a leader in software-defined networking with its SDN Fabric technology that incorporates industry standards, Open APIs and support for both physical and virtual networking infrastructures.

The company's products include the Big Cloud Fabric and Big Tap Monitoring Fabric. In May, the company announced that Big Cloud Fabric supports VMware's NSX network virtualization platform.

CafeX Communications

New York

Top Executive: President and CEO Rami Musallam

CafeX Communications develops realtime engagement applications for mobile and desktop systems, extending existing business-to-business and business-to-consumer communications assets to iOS, Android and web browsers.

The company's applications include the Live Assist platform used to embed co-browsing and screen sharing in mobile apps and websites, and the WebRTC software for adding video chat and messaging to call centers.

CafeX Communications raised $21 million in Series B financing in March.

Cologix

Denver

Top Executive: President and CEO Grant van Rooyen

Cologix is a network-neutral interconnection and data center company that provides massively scalable interconnection services and secure, reliable co-location services in facilities in the U.S. and Canada. The company supports carrier, managed service, cloud, media, content, financial service and enterprise customers.

LiveAction

Santa Clara, Calif.

Top Executive: CEO Darren Kimura

LiveAction provides application-aware network performance management software that features visual displays, realtime big data analytics, and deep control of routers and switches for advanced network administration.

The vendor's technology helps administrators troubleshoot with quality-of-service control, application-aware capabilities and WAN functionality developed through an engineering partnership with Cisco.

Pica8

Palo Alto, Calif.

Top Executive: CEO James Liao

Pica8 builds white-box network switches, based on the PicaOS Linux-based network operating system, that deliver software-defined networking systems for data centers and cloud computing environments.

The vendor's systems enable data center administrators to easily integrate Layer-2/Layer-3 networking and software-defined networking.

Pica8 competes against established networking hardware vendors Cisco and Juniper Networks. Pica8 CEO James Liao recently said that his company's open-source, bare-metal switches are more secure than competitors' products.

Pluribus Networks

Palo Alto, Calif.

Top Executive: CEO Kumar Srikantan

Pluribus Networks said it's bringing the virtualization revolution to the network with its software-defined networking platforms and Netvisor distributed network hypervisor operating system.

The company joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner program in July, and partnered with Red Hat in June to combine Netvisor with Red Hat OpenStack.

Pluribus Networks raised $50 million in Series D financing in January.

Relay2

Milpitas, Calif.

Top Executive: CEO Greg Daily

Relay2 develops and manufactures next-generation, enterprise-class wireless networking systems, including scalable, high-performance, cloud-controller-based WLAN systems that simplify the deployment and management of secure and reliable distributed WLANs.

Tely Labs

Redwood City, Calif.

Top Executive: President and CEO Todd Abbott

Tely Labs develops simple, secure and affordable videoconferencing and collaboration systems. Its telyHD Pro is an all-in-one appliance for cloud-based services that provides organizations of all sizes with business-class functionality.

Todd Abbott was named president and CEO of Tely Labs in June. He was previously executive vice president of strategy and go-to-market at Sonus Networks.

VeloCloud

Mountain View, Calif.

Top Executive: CEO Sanjay Uppal

VeloCloud offers a cloud-delivered, software-defined WAN, which the company says simplifies branch WAN networking by automating deployment and improving performance over private, broadband and LTE links.

VeloCloud revealed this year several joint partnerships to broaden its global distribution reach, including alliances with Freewire and Japan-based Net One Systems.