Today, Pertino announced its next step to propel its software-defined networking (SDN) strategy for real use in the mobile and cloud era. AppScape — which the company says is the industry’s first app store for delivering virtual network services on cloud networks — enhances what Pertino calls its Network Service Virtualization with new apps, partnerships, and platform infrastructure.

Pertino also announced it's teaming up with new vendors to bring its apps to extend business-class visibility, security, and control to cloud networks.

The newest apps to be announced by Pertino and partners Skyhook Wireless, Procera Networks, and Splashtop are:

• UsageMonitor: Uses big data analytics to offer almost-real-time monitoring and reporting of the network’s bandwidth consumption across all users and devices
• ADConnect: Extends Active Directory DNS resolution to cloud networks
• NameStation: As an alternative to IP addresses, assigns default names to all devices; this allows IT experts to personalize those names and assign multiple names to a single device
• GeoView Pro: Pinpoints and tracks user and device locations with street-level accuracy, giving Pertino users the ability to find stolen devices and clear them from the network easily
• Pertino Desktop: Coming in the fourth quarter, this app gives users the ability to secure devices remotely using any device, and allows IT specialists to provide support from anywhere.

Pertino launched into public view in 2013, with the founders coming from IT company Packeteer. It was created on the basis that networks should work more like the cloud by being more mobile and easily accessible to those who need them. It was Pertino’s mindset that users shouldn’t have to be network experts to create their own network, so Pertino gives users the ability to spin up networks within the cloud, connecting users and resources quickly. What takes only a few seconds and clicks with Pertino can take other products and companies hours, the company says.

“Anyone in any size business can build a network with Pertino,” says Pertino’s chief marketing officer, Todd Krautkremer. “You don’t need to know anything about SDN or NFV to use what it can deliver.”

Pertino uses SDN to power its network-as-a -service (NaaS) platform. In doing this, turning a large network into something that resembles a LAN, despite nodes being hundreds or thousands of miles apart.

What Pertino calls NSV is a flipped model of network functions virtualization (NFV). Pertino’s architecture connects users to the data plane no matter where they are, bringing the service to where the traffic is, not vice versa. This helps to limit traffic and dramatically reduce cost for any size of network. With just an Internet connection, this gives customers access to their data, but Pertino’s model also offers benefits when it comes to security.

“Because it’s on a private, encrypted overlay network, networks created with Pertino are completely opaque from the Internet,” said Krautkremer. “You can’t attack what you can’t see.”

Users can manage others who want to join the network, either by giving them permission to join or by erasing them from the network and denying access to its contents. What’s more, Pertino says its model offers better visibility and allows users to see who is accessing the network from what devices, regardless of where a user might be.

Pertino claims 5,000 customers, making it the "largest representation of SDN," Krautkremer says. “It’s good for the industry, because it’s a tangible use case to show what SDN can do in the real world.”

Of those 5000 companies that have built their networks on Pertino, many are using Pertino's free plan, Krautkremer says. But now, Pertino is building a sales force and trying to convert customers to business networks and accounts. So far, they have 200 paying customers.