Aryaka is doing software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) a little differently from others in this arena that provide overlays. Aryaka has invested in a global private network, which it put together by buying Layer 2 capacity from Tier 1 and Tier 2 service providers.

The company today launched its SD-WAN Ultra service, which combines the global private network, WAN optimization, and cloud acceleration. This product is differentiated from overlay technologies in which SD-WAN vendors encourage the use of MPLS along with multiple transport technologies.

“Some SD-WAN vendors do a good job of controlling the entry and exit of data on this network,” says Shehzad Karkhanawala, Aryaka's product marketing manager. “High-priority traffic goes over MPLS, and less important [traffic] goes over the public Internet. That’s the most common use case of SD-WAN.”

But challenges such as latency and jitter exist with hybrid WANs that partially rely on the public Internet. In addition, “MPLS has no WAN optimization on top of it,” Karkhanawala says. “And most SD-WANs do a poor job of connecting to cloud services.

“Because of the private network, we can provide end-to-end orchestration and control. Along with this optimization and cloud acceleration, we can resolve all issues without having to depend on MPLS.”

Gary Sevounts, CMO with Aryaka, says of the effort to create a global private network: “It’s a huge investment in terms of money. It’s an investment in terms of negotiation and in IT. You have to develop software, a virtualization layer where it will seamlessly communicate.”

The company has raised $75 million in funding, says Sevounts.

Besides targeting enterprises, Sevounts says telcos are looking at using Aryaka’s technology “as sort of a patch” to go along with their MPLS networks. He says the company is collaborating with Japan’s KDDI and Korea’s SK Broadband.

During the past six months, Aryaka has gotten a new CEO, a CMO, and a chief security officer. CEO Shawn Farshchi has a background in IT as well as C-suite experience. CMO Sevounts was also hired recently, as well as chief security officer Randolph Barr.