Turnium has been a player in the SD-WAN space for less than two years, but its core technology has been around for nearly a decade and powers a double-digit percentage of the overall market. And it’s using that platform to target enterprises currently relying on equipment from Juniper Networks and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
The company, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, uses a core solution developed by its sister company Multapplied. That product has been sold for years as a white label platform to internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom service providers.
Nicky Kearns, COO and co-founder of Turnium, said that platform serves about 10 percent of the market. Customers using the white label SD-WAN product include Rogers Communications in Canada.
“It’s very well established and we feel it’s the most mature solution in the space in terms of functionality,” Kearns explained.
Johan Arnet, CTO and co-founder of Turnium and Multapplied, said the technology is basically an invisible arrow in the quiver that these customers can deploy when needed.
“A lot of enterprises have Multapplied through these partnerships but don’t even know it,” Arnet said.
Turnium’s Turn
As the SD-WAN market has matured, Kearns said that Multapplied realized that its platform offered everything that enterprises wanted from an SD-WAN service. This led to the company launching Turnium as its full-service, enterprise-focused, go-to-market approach.
“This is basically providing us with two ways into the market,” Kearns explained. “Turnium is somewhat new to the space but it’s using a very mature technology.”
The Multapplied technology provides what are essential WAN services like security, availability, performance, and quality of service, and core services like routing. It can combine broadband, MPLS, and wireless connections or operate as purely a broadband service.
Another key feature is its channel bonding, which Kearns explained allows the platform to support packet load balancing. He noted that some other offerings rely on path load balancing, which sends one connection to one path and another connection to another path. The Multiapplied technology brings those connections, or packets, together and routes them through the best performing connection.
“It also does this without changing the IP address so that the connection is never lost or dropped,” Kearns said.
Arnet demonstrated the technology by using four different broadband connections: a cable broadband connect, two DSL connections, and a wireless LTE connection. He then began to unlink those connections one by one to show the platform transitioning the packet traffic to the connections that remained active.
Turnium offers the package as an as-a-service model. It’s delivered either through a device sent to a customer premises or as software that can be deployed on a customer’s virtual machine (VM) or its own hardware. This allows for an easier installation model that can be activated in as little as 30 minutes.
“You see companies like Cisco with its Viptela product going after enterprises with complex architectures or that are already established Cisco customers,” Kearns said. “We are going in the opposite direction and simplifying as much as possible so an enterprise does not need to worry about the network. The SD-WAN basically becomes a utility and just works.”
SD-WAN Market
Arnet said the SD-WAN market today remains a “land grab” and that he does not yet see a significant rush toward consolidation, though he does recognize recent moves. This includes Cisco’s $610 million acquisition of Viptela last year, and VMware‘s $449 million purchase of VeloCloud.
“Success can’t be had without going head-to-head with those guys, but the market is enormous. There is really just a sprint today for market share,” Arnet said. “There is so much opportunity in the market and value for businesses.” He added that it was doubtful current Cisco shops would make the move away from a Cisco-Viptela platform, but that there might be an angle with enterprises using products from vendors like Juniper or HPE.
“They don’t have an answer to this,” Arnet explained. “Those are the customers that will look to us for a solution.”
Despite the lofty goals, Arnet did not dismiss Turnium’s own place as a potential acquisition target.
“Do we get taken out or get an offer from one of those guys? Maybe, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Arnet said with a laugh. “But the flip side is that we just want to play well with others.”
