This week we are featuring new companies in campus network-as-a-service (NaaS), data, edge, and cybersecurity.

Campus NaaS is hot as large enterprises struggle to secure and operate campus networks. Campus networking isn't core to anyone's business and is the perfect infrastructure technology to farm out as-a-service. This is why France-based campus NaaS company Wifirst's impressive customer base is so interesting to me.

In my experience running large campus networks, the skill sets required to completely operate a campus network are dramatically different than those it takes to build compelling switches, routers, access points, or sensors. This dramatically opens the market up beyond traditional campus networking vendors and in my view creates an environment ripe to disrupt companies like Arista, Cisco, Extreme Networks, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)/Aruba + Juniper. These vendors may have networking and artificial intelligence (AI) chops but do they really have the culture, people, and processes to outsource and complete operate campus networks across the globe? Time will tell. In the meantime, pull up a chair and grab your popcorn.

Other innovative technology areas this week include new companies working in serverless data platforms, security for AI, identity and access management, and cloud data security.

We also added the Wireless Broadband Alliance to the list, which highlights our ongoing push to add important industry associations to the directory. If your favorite industry association is missing, DM me and we'll get it added.

Simplifying your research One common piece of feedback coming from leaders, experts, and operators (LEOs) is the need to make it easier to perform their research on SDxCentral. There's a lot more to it than just improving our search tools. One specific request has been to make it easier to find what particular analyst firms are saying about the market, a company, technology, or approach. It's always been easy to find content about Forrester, Gartner, and IDC on SDxCentral – but for everyone else, not so much.

To address this need, we are starting to capture more industry analyst firms in our directory. This week we focused primarily on telecom industry analyst. The criteria is simple: if our content team cites an analyst firm's research in SDxCentral, then we'll add that firm to the directory. This will make it easier to research and learn the point-of-view from a specific analyst as you perform your research. Help us build out the list by contacting Dan Meyer, Nancy Liu, or myself to recommend additional analyst firms.

We also updated the list below to display companies in alphabetical order.

PSA: The SDxCentral Directory of companies is a free service available to all SDxCentral members. Log in or create an account to access the list. Details for how to add your company (or update your page) to the SDxCentral Directory are at the bottom of this article.

Not sure what you need? Check out the complete list of organizations or open-source projects in the directory where you can filter by technologies.

Company Primary Market Sectors Company Details

ACG Research Telecom ACG Research is a market research and consulting firm that specializes in providing analysis and insights on the networking and telecommunications industry. The company offers in-depth research reports, consulting services, and custom projects to help clients understand market trends, make strategic decisions, and drive business growth. ACG Research has a team of industry experts who combine market data with their expertise to deliver valuable insights and recommendations to their clients.

Analysys Mason Data Center Analysys Mason is a global consulting and research firm specializing in the telecommunications, media, and technology industries. The company provides strategic advice and market intelligence to help businesses navigate the complex landscape of digital transformation, regulatory changes, and technological advancements. With a focus on data-driven analysis and industry expertise, Analysys Mason helps its clients make informed decisions and achieve their business goals in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Camara Project Telecom Camara is an open source project within the Linux Foundation to define, develop, and test the APIs. Camara works in close collaboration with the GSMA Operator Platform Group to align API requirements, publish API definitions, and APIs. Harmonization of APIs is achieved through working code with developer-friendly documentation. API definitions and reference implementations are free to use (Apache2.0 license).

Canalys Telecom Canalys is a market research firm that specializes in providing analysis and insights on the technology industry. They offer services to help businesses understand market trends, competitive landscapes, and customer behavior. Canalys tracks market data, conducts surveys, and provides consulting services to help companies make informed decisions and improve their business strategies. With a focus on areas such as mobile devices, computers, cloud services, and emerging technologies, Canalys serves clients across the globe in various industries including IT, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.

Counterpoint Telecom Counterpoint Research is a global market research and consulting firm specializing in the technology industry. The company provides in-depth analysis and insights into various sectors including smartphones, wearables, and emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence. Counterpoint Research helps clients understand market trends, competitive landscapes, and consumer behavior through its research reports, consulting services, and custom data solutions. With a team of experienced analysts and industry experts, Counterpoint Research offers strategic recommendations to help companies make informed business decisions and stay competitive in the fast-paced tech market.

Exact Ventures Telecom Exact Ventures is a research and consulting firm that specializes in providing market intelligence and analysis for the telecommunications and networking industries. The company offers insights into market trends, competitive landscapes, technology adoption, and strategic planning to help clients make informed business decisions. Through in-depth research and industry expertise, Exact Ventures offers a comprehensive view of the market landscape to support companies in their strategic planning and growth initiatives.

Momento Data Momento is a serverless platform that accelerates application performance, streamlines development, and empowers development teams. They offer caching, messaging, and vector search services to make developers, databases, and applications faster.

Opensignal Telecom Opensignal is a mobile analytics and insights company that provides independent and unbiased analysis of mobile network performance. They collect data from millions of devices around the world to measure and report on things like network speed, coverage, and reliability, helping consumers make informed decisions about their mobile service providers. Opensignal also works with mobile network operators to help improve their services based on the data and insights they provide.

OptDyn Edge OptDyn is a pioneering company in P2P multi-access edge clouds, offering accessible IoT and edge computing solutions at reduced costs.

Wifirst NaaS and Networking Wifirst is a company that specializes in providing high-speed internet and network solutions for various sectors, such as hospitality, student accommodation, and health care. They offer managed Wi-Fi services, network infrastructure design, installation and maintenance, and 24/7 customer support. Wifirst aims to optimize the connectivity experience for their clients and users by delivering reliable and secure internet services.

Wireless Broadband Alliance Telecom The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is a global industry association that works to promote and enable seamless Wi-Fi connectivity around the world. The organization brings together wireless service providers, technology vendors, and other industry stakeholders to develop and advocate for standards and best practices in the deployment of Wi-Fi technologies. The WBA also conducts research and provides educational resources to support the growth and advancement of Wi-Fi networks. Additionally, the WBA collaborates with other industry associations and organizations to address common challenges and drive innovation in the wireless broadband space.

WitnessAI Security WitnessAI enables safe and effective AI solutions for responsible development and deployment.

ZenData Security ZenData provides comprehensive data protection and privacy compliance solutions, offering a full stack cloud data security platform with no code integration for businesses of all sizes.

Zilla Security Security Zilla Security offers automated cloud identity security solutions, simplifying access compliance and ensuring regulatory adherence for enterprises.

About the SDxCentral Directory The SDxCentral Directory includes more than 1,800 companies (and growing) in the infrastructure sector. The directory is a free resource for IT decision-makers to research and stay current on their current and prospective vendors so they can make informed decisions.

How can my company be added to the SDxCentral Directory? If your company is not listed and you think it should be or it is not classified as you'd expect, please drop me a direct message on LinkedIn and we'll review and approve if appropriate. Our purpose-built AI-driven platform, trained by our industry experts and private large language models (LLM), classifies companies based on the knowledge and information we have about your company relative to the rest of the market.

One reason IT decision-makers at enterprises, government agencies, service providers, and hyperscalers visit SDxCentral is to stay current and make decisions on which technologies and vendors are right for their environment. If you have suggestions for how to make the directory – and these articles – more relevant to you, please drop me a message.