Performance monitoring company Kentik is making inroads in Japan. The company scored a deal with Japanese telecom operator KDDI, in which KDDI will deploy Kentik's performance monitoring technology in its network to improve visibility and increase performance. In addition, it signed a reseller agreement with Japanese systems integrator Net One Systems. Net One will distribute Kentik’s analytics platform to service providers and enterprises across Japan.

KDDI offers its customers a range of managed services including cloud infrastructure, data centers, security services, Internet access, voice and phone services, and satellite communications. By using Kentik's software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, called Kentik Detect, KDDI can take advantage of Kentik's user interface to get a multidimensional view of its network in real time.

Kentik’s user interface allows customers to pick different fields of data they want to see. Users can adjust how much data in that field they want to see and what timeframe they want to view. And the platform displays the data in a way that allows customers to change their network on the fly, leveraging that data, said Alex Henthorn-Iwane, VP of product marketing at Kentik.

Kentik Detect is a bare-metal engine that is deployed as a Docker container. The engine has three layers: the first handles the ingest of data; the second layer stores all of the data; and the third is the interface where users can take action based on the visualized data.

Kentik claims that one of its biggest differentiators is how it’s engine functions as one cohesive tool, taking in massive amounts of data. Henthorn-Iwane said that other performance management companies typically offer a range of tools that don’t always interoperate, but rather “give users a tiny summary for that particular use case.” Because Kentik is a single engine, it’s able to unify all the data and keep the details.

Kentik launched out of stealth in 2015 and announced a $23 million Series B last year, bringing its total funding to $38.2 million. The San Francisco-based company has more than 60 employees.