Pica8 recently announced a new pack combining its AmpCon network controller and PicOS software switches, and a $20 million Series C funding round. The plucky vendor explained the moved shifted it one step further to its goal of being the network industry’s “software Cisco.”

The AmpCon network controller’s automation framework deploys, configures, and manages an enterprise network's white-box switches. And the PicOS software switches use an Ethernet VPN VXLAN fabric to offer network virtualization across campus and data center networks.

Pica8 claims those products provide alternatives to Cisco DNA Center and Catalyst switches.

“It’s an all-in-one software switch automation platform,” Pica8 CMO Kelly LeBlanc said. Customers can deploy this pack on Dell, Edgecore, or other white-box hardware with multi-gigabit or power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities of their choice.

Founder and CEO James Liao added that the new pack is “not only a business model change, it actually changes people's thinking about how they deploy the network.” 

He added that the vendor is focused on making "a customer's life easy” by separating the hardware from the software. “You now have a continuity of your operation, you don't need to continue to invest on the operation training, change of your applications, change your management platform,” Liao told SDxCentral.

“We've been doing fundamental work trying to get to one very critical point: we want to be 100% compatible with Cisco in the field,” Liao said. “Last year we finally got not only the controller and PicOS ready, we deployed successfully to multiple Fortune 500 [companies]. Then we said this is the time that we should raise the funding.”

Liao explained that the funding would be used to invest in new employees. The company has tripled its sales team and also increased headcount in marketing, product management, and engineering. 

The company also plans to build up partnerships with hardware and software vendors, as well as strengthen its network controller business. “We want to be the controller, eventually connecting all the customers so they work together,” Liao said. 

“There is growing skepticism that Cisco can be a competitive software company because of various layers of hardware baggage," Liao wrote in his recent blog. "But it’s obvious the industry needs a [software Cisco].”

“We are a software company, so we got much better flexibility, much better integration with other software, and much faster go-to-market than Cisco,” Liao touted. 

He added that other big vendors such as Juniper Networks and Arista Networks, closed-systems startups, and open resource groups like SONiC are also trying to fill the software gap in the industry. 

“We're very unique in one thing: we are trying to help people to deal with the network,” Liao said. “The biggest thing about Pica8's controller and the whole infrastructure is that we allow you to focus on the things that matter."