Aviz Raises $17M, With Cisco and Qualcomm as Investors

Aviz Networks, a startup focused on open, multivendor networking based on the SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) operating system, yesterday announced that it has closed $17 million in Series A funding.

The list of investors is intriguing. The round was led by Alter Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Cisco Investments, Moment Ventures, Wistron, and Accton and new strategic investors including Celestica and Qualcomm Ventures. This follows up a $10 million seed round in 2023, which included many of the same investors.

The presence of Cisco, as well as major integrators and contract manufacturers such as Wistron, Accton, and Celestica, shows the growing ecosystem for open networking and SONiC. The investment also indicates that Aviz has good traction in delivering flexible, cost-effective networking solutions that can meet the growth needs for datacenters, cloud, and AI.

(In an interesting side note, Nokia this week announced a major multiyear deal with Microsoft Azure to use SONiC-based solutions in Microsoft’s datacenters.)

Super SONiC Traction

With the investment, Aviz says it plans to increase its global workforce. Aviz CEO Vishal Shukla told me in an interview the company currently has about 75 employees and plans to increase the headcount by 15-20 employees in 2025.

What's driving the growth? Shukla told me that demand for SONiC-based solutions is growing in a number of areas, fueled by use cases as varied as AI and edge networking.

“The demand is coming from the datacenter as well as both front-end and back-end networks,” said Shukla. “Datacenter is the easiest use case. The second one we are seeing is in SONiC edge networks. Large retailers are deploying in these edge scenarios. Also, there are GPU-as-a-service providers. The new one that is coming up is [AI] inferencing.”

In addition to deploying SONiC networking software that can be deployed on any vendor’s hardware, Aviz has also been focusing on adding features to its network management, including AIOps and observability features. The company’s approach is to provide flexible, open solutions that deliver operational control and substantial cost savings. We have profiled this approach in a whitepaper here (Disclosure: Aviz is a Futuriom research client).

Edge Use Cases Run Strong

Aviz has been having success with large retailers for edge deployments, including a large retailer whose name it can’t disclose. But the value and adoption is clear, based on our discussions with retail customers.

The primary advantages of SONiC and open networking at the edge are two-fold, based on Futuriom research. First, open networking provides a more flexible architecture and often lower cost. Several of the large retailers we have spoken with say they are trying to avoid vendor lock-in as well as the higher costs of working with vertically integrated, proprietary systems from brand-name vendors. Secondly, SONiC offers flexibility on the programming and protocol side. Originally created for Microsoft's Azure datacenters, the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) decouples the control plane from vendor-specific hardware and enables programmability via APIs and microservices. Companies that are using SONiC in large datacenter deployments include Alibaba, eBay, and Target.

Vishal told me that programmability at the edge is a key attraction that makes it adaptable to a variety of networking protocols and devices. For example, an edge SONiC switch can be adapted to a wide range of devices, including cameras, point-of-sale devices, barcode scanners, and other devices. This is attractive to retailers. To standardize this, the SONiC Foundation launched the PoE Edge Network (the PENS working group).

Aviz also has deployments in the AI GPU datacenter space, such as its relationship with TensorWave. TensorWave says Aviz’s ONES management software “stands out with its advanced RoCE orchestration capabilities, meticulously managing buffer settings, Priority Flow Control (PFC), and Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN).”

TensorWave also said that Aviz’s orchestration scheme ensures that data travels through network fabrics efficiently, which is crucial for AI and machine learning applications requiring real-time processing.

Cisco and Qualcomm Have Invested

With the large manufacturers such as Wistron, Accton, and Celestica in the investment group, Aviz gains credibility and important partnerships with integrators and distributors. But there's also Cisco.

Cisco's involvement is interesting, given that SONiC and open networking could compete with its own proprietary products. However, Cisco is also interested to reaching the widest possible markets, so this offers the company another route to customers seeking open solutions. Cisco has been supporting Aviz from the beginning. Hence, it looks like a diversification strategy.

Qualcomm's involvement is also interesting, showing the potential that Aviz and SONiC have for edge applications.

"As networks evolve, embracing AI will be crucial for enabling superior performance and operational excellence. By integrating AI with open-source solutions like SONiC, Aviz Networks is empowering enterprises to build scalable and flexible networks in a cost-effective manner," said Quinn Li, Senior Vice President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Global Head of Qualcomm Ventures, in the company release. "We are excited to support Aviz Networks to transform enterprise networking."

Futuriom Take: The new investment in Aviz lends evidence that the SONiC market has traction in key markets, including retail and ecommerce.