BI Analyst Briefing: Networking Disruptions: The Cloud at Your Service – A Conversation With Alkira’s CEO and CTO Founders

Woo Jin Ho is the senior networking and semiconductor analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. His research has focused on enabling technologies next generation networks, such as software defined networking (SDN), high speed optics and 5G, and the direction of smartphone and data center chips in the semiconductor sectors. Prior to joining Bloomberg Intelligence in 2015, he was a sell-side equity analyst for Nomura Securities, Merrill Lynch and CIBC Oppenheimer over a 15-year span. He covered the networking, enterprise software and imaging sectors during his tenure on Wall Street.

Amir Khan is a computer networking visionary who founded and led Viptela’s market-leading, cloud-first, Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) business before its acquisition by Cisco. As prescient as he was in identifying the $8B opportunity for SD-WAN, Amir recognized that the network hampered the cloud journey and founded Alkira in 2018 with CTO Atif Khan to provide an alternative to DIY with a Network as-a-Service (NaaS). Alkira has delivered the industry’s first Network Cloud, a global unified NaaS with 1) connectivity for hybrid and multi-cloud networks 2) integrated network and security services, and 3) end-to-end operational visibility and governance. Alkira CSX, is an on-demand, as-a-service, point and click, unified NaaS that enables cloud architects to design, build, and deploy a global multi-cloud network in minutes. Alkira enables enterprises to implement 50% less firewall capacity, and reduce TCO by up to 40%. Before Viptela, Amir held leadership roles at Cisco, Juniper, and Nortel. He holds 4 patents. Amir earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Mississippi.

Atif Khan is a renowned routing expert with extensive experience bringing ground-breaking networking solutions to market and in architecting some of the largest and most sophisticated global networks. He is responsible for Alkira’s technology vision and overall engineering and product development of Alkira Cloud Services Exchange. Atif was VP Technology and Solutions, and a founding team member at Viptela, where he developed a world-class, cloud-first, highly scalable SD-WAN solution with advanced routing, segmentation, and security capabilities. Following the Viptela acquisition, Atif was Senior Director of the Enterprise Networking Business at Cisco. Prior to Viptela he held senior positions at Alcatel, Huawei and Juniper Networks and holds 7 patents in routing, security and overlay multicast. Atif received a BS in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder.