Heavy Reading Rates the 10 Most Promising SDN Startups

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Software-defined networking (SDN) is re-energizing the telecom technology industry, and the startups that are helping to drive SDN are drawing major attention from incumbent suppliers and network operators alike. The latest report from Heavy Reading Insider (www.heavyreading.com/insider) identifies the most promising SDN startups and assesses their potential to influence the development of SDN in the months and years ahead.

SDN Startups: 10 Companies That Matter offers an in-depth look at 10 startups that are emerging as potential game-changers in the SDN sector. The report profiles each company, gauges its technology value and market prospects and assesses its potential to be acquired in the near future. Each company is rated on three basic criteria:

• Tech Sizzle: What do we know about the company's technology thus far? How it is different than or similar to other developments in the SDN sector?
• Market Sizzle: Does this company have customers? Is the market, including prospective competitors and partners, talking about it? What are its market aims, and can it achieve them?
• M&A Sizzle: Does this company's technology value, market focus or funding state make put it on the short list of prime acquisition targets?

For a list of companies covered in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/lri/pdf/hri1012_companies.pdf

"SDN is still very much in the process of being defined, both as a technology and a market," says Dan O'Shea, research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. "It has been called by some, without any note of hyperbole, the biggest transformation to hit the networking market in the last 30 years."

It comes as no surprise that this combination of technology and market factors has enticed a new crop of startups looking to help further define and enable SDN, O'Shea notes. "In the last year or so, anywhere from one to two dozen new companies have taken root with plans to shape – or be shaped by – SDN," he adds. "If SDN practices and technologies change things as dramatically as these vendors suggest, the next two years or so will see this sector evolve quickly from the proof-of-concept and company-building phases into a stage of intense competition and consolidation."

Key findings of SDN Startups: 10 Companies That Matter include the following:

• SDN has been called by some the biggest transformation to hit the networking market in the last 30 years.
• If a company wants to counter VMWare's Nicira purchase by acquiring a hot SDN startup, its most likely target is Big Switch.
• Two major carriers have endorsed ConteXtream with their wallets – in the form of investments, not deployment contracts – not yet anyway.
• Contrail Systems received and turned down an offer to be acquired before raising its Series A financing round.
• Embrane currently sees service providers adopting SDN ahead of the coming wave of enterprise activity.
• The market opportunity for SDN is an increasingly international one, with Japan and several other countries set to follow U.S. adoption.

SDN Startups: 10 Companies That Matter is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 issues) to Heavy Reading Insider, priced at $1,995. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/insider. For more information about other Heavy Reading Insider research services, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

Jeff Geddes
Account Manager
Heavy Reading
303-997-9135
geddes@lightreading.com

Press/analyst contact:
Jennifer Baker
Marketing Director, Light Reading Communications Network
617-747-4110
jbaker@lightreading.com

About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)
Heavy Reading is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the global telecom industry. As a telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com)
The Light Reading Communications Network combines the most trusted telecom research brands with award-winning online communities and a rich events portfolio to deliver the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.   With the power of this platform, leaders who build, deploy, finance, and regulate next-generation telecom networks are able to make more informed decisions on emerging market and service opportunities.  Light Reading Communications Network is a division of UBM TechWeb (www.ubmtechweb.com), the global leader in technology media and business information. 

SOURCE Heavy Reading