Intel plugs 6.5M into Big Switch

 

Intel plugs $6.5M into Big Switch Networks

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Big Switch Networks co-founders Kyle Forster, left, and Guido Appenzeller have raised $45 million in venture funding, including a new $6.5 million investment by Intel Capital.

Cromwell Schubarth

Senior Technology Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal

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Big Switch Networks, one of the contenders bidding to disrupt the networking equipment market, has gained a powerful backer with a $6.5 million investment by Intel Capital.

The Palo Alto startup led by co-founders Kyle Forster and Guido Appenzeller is one of a group of companies that use software to make data networks more flexible and automated, triggering a wave of acquisitions by industry giants including Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Juniper.
If software-controlled networking takes off as predicted it could shift business away from proprietary equipment made by the likes of Cisco to more commoditized types of servers of the type that are powered by Intel's chips.
Software-controlled networking came into focus with last summer's $1.26 billion acquisition of Nicira by VMware.

The latest funding brings the total that Big Switch has raised to date to $45 million, much of which Jason Matlof, vice president of marketing, said hasn't been tapped yet. Other backers include Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.

"This was a strategic funding, not because we needed additional money," he said. "When you have an offer of money from the likes of Intel, though, it is too good an opportunity to pass up."
Bryan Wolf, managing director of Intel Capital, said in a prepared statement, "We’re looking for companies creating the most disruptive data center solutions, and Big Switch Networks Open Software-Defined Networking product suite is a leading solution in data center network virtualization."

Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1823.