VMware acquires employees and assets of SDN startup PlumGrid

VMware, a subsidiary of Dell, has purchased assets from OpenStack software-defined networking (SDN) startup PlumGrid to strengthen its SDN and container strategy.

PlumGrid will shut down, according to a blog post by the company's co-founder and CTO Pere Monclus, with some of its employees joining VMware.

The deal closed on Friday, though financial terms were not disclosed.

PlumGrid was founded in 2011 by ex-Cisco engineers who worked on the networking giant's Catalyst 6500 and Nexus 7000 switches.

PlumGrid's technology, which was introduced in 2013, took a different approach to other SDN players like Nicira, which was also acquired by VMware. It has created an input/output processor called IO Visor that sits in the Linux kernel and controls virtual domains for network virtualisation, monitoring, and security, as opposed to creating an SDN controller to dictate instructions to switches.

The startup recently announced a partnership with Quanta Cloud Technology to provide an OpenStack solution using SDN and network functions virtualisation, following the release of its CloudSecure platform targeting micro-segmentation with private virtual domains, policy-based virtual tap, third-party firewall service insertion, security policy view with CloudApex, and integrated support with Intel's Open Security Controller.

According to Crunchbase, PlumGrid has raised nearly $46 million in venture capital across three rounds to date, including $16.2 million in a Series B round mid-2014.

In 2015, PlumGrid hired Larry Lang as its CEO, replacing co-founder Awais Nemat who was appointed chairman of the startup's board of directors. Lang previously served as vice president and general manager of Cisco's mobile internet business and was the CEO of Quorum, a security startup.

"It's an exciting time for networking and the industry is just at the tip of its transformation. We are excited to begin a new journey and fulfill the vision of network transformation," Monclus wrote in a blog post thanking PlumGrid's customers, employees, and investors for their support.

In March, Telstra and Cisco announced three new SDN and NFV products to improve cloud security and global datacentre interconnection: Cloud Gateway Protection, Internet Virtual Private Network, and Data Centre Interconnect.

In May, Optus launched its wholesale pay-as-you-go SDN solution, Cloud-N, which allows customers to scale services to suit demand on an hourly basis through a self-serve online portal.