SDNSQUARE    GUARANTEED  PERFORMANCE  NETWORKS    EUROPEAN  ENTREPRENEURSHIP  &  INNOVATION    STANFORD  ENGINEERING  MONDAY  3RD  MARCH  2014    

Lieven  Vermaele,  CEO  and  Co-­‐Founder  SDNsquare  

European  communities  from  a  Twitter  perspective  

SDNSQUARE    GUARANTEED  PERFORMANCE.  PREDICTABLE        

Lieven  Vermaele,  CEO  and  Co-­‐Founder  SDNsquare  

Two  developed  products  based  on  the  same  core  technology  and  standard  hardware  

WARP  Software  defined  storage/  datacenter  

with  guaranteed  performance  -­‐  On  demand  storage  bandwidth  -­‐    

GRID  Software  defined  networking    with  guaranteed  performance  

-­‐  On  demand  networking  bandwidth  -­‐    

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

App  node  

SDN²  network  

Storage  node  

Disk  storage  

Mission  critical  industries    want  to  go  fully  IP/Ethernet  based  

Mission  critical  industries:  •  Media  –  our  focus  &  background  •  Medical  •  Military  •  …    

Requirement:    •  GUARANTEED  PERFORMANCE  •  PREDICTABILITY    And  (because  of  data  growth)  •  SCALABILITY  •  (cost)  EFFICIENCY  

IP  Performance  &  Reliability  

Time-­‐unsensitive  Uncritical  

Big  (small)  data    Light  bursty  

Bulk  (large)  data  Heavy  Bursty  

Time-­‐sensitive  Critical  

?  ?  ?  

CRITICAL  ZONE  

Overprovisioning  as  solution    is  not  efficient  and  effective  

Time-­‐unsensitive  Uncritical  

Big  (small)  data    Light  bursty  

Bulk  (large)  data  Heavy  Bursty  

Time-­‐sensitive  Critical  

IP  by      

OVERPROVISIONING  in  

BANDWIDTH  BUFFERING    

 OVERPROVISION  

OVER

PROVISIO

N  

Proprietary  solutions  &  infrastructure    stay  in  place  and  develop  further  

Time-­‐unsensitive  Uncritical  

Big  (small)  data    Light  bursty  

Bulk  (large)  data  Heavy  Bursty  

Time-­‐sensitive  Critical  

•  SDI    •  Infiniband  •  Fibrechannel  •  Dark  fibre  –  prop.  sol.  •  AVB  •  ...  

PROPRIETARY  SOLUTIONS  &  INFRASTRUCTURE  

SDNsquare  GRID  Mission  critical  SDN  IP  zone    

Time-­‐unsensitive  Uncritical  

Big  (small)  data    Light  bursty  

Bulk  (large)  data  Heavy  Bursty  

Time-­‐sensitive  Critical  

SMART  SOFTWARE  DEFINED  IP  NETWORKS  

Standard  IP  Networking    Hardware  combined  with  smart  mgt  softw    

SDN  –  software  defined  networking  ?  

External SDN!Application!

‘Control’ System!

IP Switch

IP Switch

IP Switch

IP Switch

SDNsquare  technology  goes    beyond  the  traditional  SDN  principle  

To  SDNsquare  End-­‐to-­‐end  guaranteed  QoS  •  Monitor  and  influence  the  traffic  

flows  to  eliminate  buffer  overflows  and  congestion/interference  to  provide  guaranteed  bandwidth  

•  Define  flows  with  certain  delivery,  steady  performance,  and  100%  efficiency.  

From  SDN  Intelligent  path  selection  •  Network  path  and  connectivity  

are  controlled  externally  via  software.  

SDNsquare  combines  intelligent  path  selection  and  end-­‐to-­‐end  guaranteed  QoS.  

Without  SDN²:  Congestion  and  disruption  

With  SDN²:  100%  utilization  

SDNsquare  GRID  

•  Expert  system    –  Simple  user  interface  –  Flexible  output  –  Performance  management  

•  Network  flow  within  LAN  –  Intelligent  path  selection  –  End  to  end  guaranteed  QoS  

Simple:  Design,  build,  deploy  in  30  seconds  Guaranteed  networking,  on  demand  bandwidth  flows  

Direct  cost  your  network  usage/users  High  performance,  mission  critical  zone  

No  need  to  overprovision:  100%  bit  efficient  

On  demand  networking    End  user  ‘flow’  request  

SDNsquare  WARP  

WARP  

Traditional  Storage  Network  

Throughput  

#  nodes  

Linear  scalable    On  demand  storage  bandwidth  per  node  

Guaranteed  performance  Increased  internal  bandwidth  (x5)    Hardware  reduction  up  to  factor  4    

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

Local    SAN  

App  node  

SDN²  network  

Storage  node  

Disk  storage  

Revenue  model  –  license  focused,  as  a  service  

GROWTH  MODEL    •  Product  sales:  

–  Direct  sales  –  Indirect:  Resellers/Integrators  

•  Technology  license    

•  OEM  product  license  

REVENUE  MODEL    •  WARP    

–  Base  license  –  BW  package  (throughput)  –  Node  package  (performance)  –  Monitoring  license  –  Hardware:  minimal,  3rd  party  

•  GRID  –  Base  license  –  Grid  flow  package  (more  flows)    –  Client  license  (more  clients)  –  Hardware:  minimal,  3rd  party  

 

SDNSQUARE    OUR  APPROACH  AND  LESSONS  LEARNED        

Lieven  Vermaele,  CEO  and  Co-­‐Founder  SDNsquare  

Experienced  leadership  team  

SDNSquare’s  three  co-­‐founders  together  have  many  years  of  international    experience  in  IP,  media  research  and  the  industry.  

Herman  Caeyers  President  and  co-­‐founder  Founder  and  ex  CEO  at  Lant  and  Xplanation  (language  processing  solutions,  80   employees  WW),   former   R&D   manager   Siemens   Artificial   Intelligence  Lab,   director   at   IMEC   and   VRT   Medialab.   Herman   has   a   Doctorate   in  theoretical  physics.    

Luc  Andries    CTO  and  co-­‐founder  Nearly  30  years  of  R&D  experience,  former  infrastructure  architect  and  top  expert  media  infrastructure,  VRT  &  VRT  Medialab.  Luc  has  a  masters  degree  in  experimental  laser  physics  from  the  University  of  Antwerp.  

Lieven  Vermaele    CEO  and  co-­‐founder  Former   Director  Technology   &   Innovation   at   Eurovision   –   EBU   (European  Broadcasting   Union),   former   program   manager   strategy   at   VRT   and  marketing  manager   at  Alcatel-­‐Lucent.     Lieven   has   a  Master   of   Science   in  Engineering  (MSE)  degree  (cum  Laude)  from  the  University  of  Gent.  

   SDNsquare:  incubation  period  

VRT-­‐medialab  was  the  technological  research  department  of  the  public  service  broadcaster  of  Flanders,  

Belgium.  It  was  founded  in  2005  to  carry  out  technological  research  into  the  

creation,  management  and  distribution  of  media  content.  

iMinds  is  a  Flemish  non-­‐profit  research  institute  aimed  at  ICT  innovation,  and  

applications  of  broadband  technology  in  particular.  It  was  founded  in  2004  by  the  

Flemish  Government  as  IBBT,  the  Interdisciplinary  Institute  for  Broadband  

Technology.  

Ghent  University,  abbreviated  to  UGent,  is  one  of  the  major  

universities  in  the  Dutch-­‐speaking  region  of  Europe.  UGent  is  a  strong  

promoter  of  entrepreneurship  amongst  its  researchers  and  master  students  and  encourages  them  to  

create  new  ventures.  

SDNsquare  timeline  

2004  

2009  

2011    

2013  

2014  

Winner  of  2014  Professional  Media  and  Entertainment  Class  Storage  Award  for  

WARP  at  the  Storage  Vision  Conference  in  Las  Vegas.  

€1.5  mio.  Investment  round  led  by  Merapar  Q4  

2013  

VRT-­‐medialab  begins  research  into  file-­‐based  

media  storage  and  networking  that  will  form  the  foundation  of  SDNsquare’s  

patented  technology.  

Recognized  by  IT  Pulse  for  SDN  orchestration  

software  2013  

Founded  as  CandIT-­‐Media.  WARP  product  

launched  in  UK  to  strong  reception.  

Patents  submitted  2009.  R&D  collaboration  with  

Cisco,  IBM,  ALU  2007/2008/2009/2010.  

Development  of  GRID  product.  

FOUNDATIO

N  

Industry  collaboration  in  project  &  partnerships  

Development  of  WARP  product.  

UK  Sales    20+references  

SERIE  A  

SDNsquare      Conservative  European  Startup  approach  ?    

 Build  up  the  best  foundation  before  starting  the  company        Projects,  Patents,  Product  &  Partners  

 •  Get  the  most  out  of  your  research  and  company  time  to  learn  and  

explore.  Eventually  to  patent  

•  Launch  the  company  when  the  first  product  is  ready  (if  possible)    

•  Use  the  opportunities  of  INTERNATIONAL  industrial  collaboration  to  find  and  build  up  a  partner  network,  to  demonstrate  your  capabilities  and  build  credibility    

•  Use  INTERNATIONAL  projects  to  get  experiences  and  first  references  

 

+  PRIORITY  ON  SALES  +  ATTRACT  INTERNATIONAL  PEOPLE  (UK,  GE,  NL)  +  NO  SELECTION  PROCEDURES  ETC  ,  USE    YOUR  

 NETWORK  TO  FIND  THE  BEST  ONES  AND  CALL  THEM    

Expanding  the  team  –  9  full  time  +  3  consultancy  contracts    

 +  REFERENCES  FIRST:  START  IN  THE  MOST  DYNAMIC  MARKET      +  BUILD  OUT  ASAP  LOCAL  RESELLER  NETWORK    +  USE  THE  SALES/PRE  SALES  CHANNELS  OF  TECHNOLOGY  PARTNERS    +  VISIT  YOUR  POTENTIAL  CLIENTS    

 BUT  ALSO  THEIR  POTENTIAL  RESELLERS  OR  INTEGRATORS    

Scale  up  sales  (in  Europe)    

SDNsquare    -­‐  Merapar  (NL)  a  co-­‐operative  VC  

 •  The  VC  can  bring  much  more  than  financial  resources  

•  Search  for  a  VC  with    –  a  wide  focus  (geographically)  –  experience  in  a  few  industries    –  a  network  in  your  industry    –  the  time  to  support  the  company  

•  Your  VC  is  your  partner.  Use  them.  Go  for  the  win/win    •  About  Merapar:  

Merapar  is  a  change-­‐oriented  European  investment  and  advisory  firm  helping  innovative  technology,  media,  and  telecoms  companies  develop  disruptive  technologies  and  business  models.  Founded  in  2013,  the  company  is  headquartered  in  Berlin  and  Eindhoven  and  is  also  present  in  Brussels,  London,  and  Silicon  Valley.    

 

SDNSQUARE    THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  

 IS  THIS  THE  RIGHT  THING  TO  DO?        IS  THIS  THE  RIGHT  TIME  TO  DO  ?    

     

Lieven  Vermaele,  CEO  and  Co-­‐Founder  SDNsquare  

Europe:  diploma  =  proof  of  success,  go  for  a  safe  job  and  join  career  ladder  

THE  OPPORTUNITY  COST    STAYING  IN  THE  JOB  VS  (AD)VENTURE    

 …  AND  WHAT  IF  I  FAIL?      

For  the  conservative  ones,  you  can  do  the  maths  …    

BUILD  OUT  A  PROFESSIONAL  NETWORK    BUILD  YOUR  BRAND  &  CREDIBILITY  PROSPECT  FUTURE  PARTNERS  …  AND  IF  YOU  FAIL,  YOU  CAN  ALWAYS  GO  BACK    

Leverage  on  your  career  

European  communities  from  a  Twitter  perspective  

+  high  creativity  /  number  of  ideas  

-­‐  high  overlap  and  similar  clusters  between  Countries  +/-­‐  regional/national  competition    

-­‐  size  of  markets:  small  –  no  scale    

-­‐  very  local  market  sale  approach  -­‐  Language  and  cultural  barriers  

-­‐  small  funds,  typically  per  country  

+  easy  access  to  ‘R&D’  funding  +/-­‐  European  wide  VC  exists  ,  but  more  are  needed  

+  good  education,  well  trained  

-­‐  Risk  averse  –  failure  not  allowed      -­‐  Low  movement/migration  and  intercultural  understanding  

Diversity  of  Europe  >  Biggest  challenges  for  Europe  

WILL  EUROPE  BECOME  A  LOW  PRICE  SME  OR  R&D  ‘SHOP’  FOR  THE  REST  OF  THE  WORLD?    

The  end  game  for  Europe?    Reflection  

SDNsquare  in  a  snapshot  view  •  References:  20+  

"   20+  installation  in  Media  broadcasting  houses,  post  production,  training  etc  (UK,  BE,  GE)  and  several  POC    

•  Products:  fully  developed,  tested  and  installed  "   WARP:  software  defined  storage/datacenter  with  guaranteed  performance  

"   On  demand  storage  bandwidth  

"   GRID:  software  defined  networking  with  guaranteed  performance  "   On  demand  networking  bandwidth  

•  License  based  revenue  model  (not  hardware  oriented)  

•  Markets:  mission  critical  organizations  that  need  guaranteed  performance  in  IP        "   Media,  Medical,  Military,  …  "   Market  size:  variable  in  definition  but  >  2B  USD    

•  Nbr  of  employees:  9  full  time  +  3      

•  Funding:    1.5M  EUR  investment  by  VC  Merapar  NL  in  Q4/2013  

Thank  you!  

SDNsquare  NV  Gaston  Crommenlaan  10,  bus  101  9050  Ghent,  Belgium  +  32  9  331  48  06    Lieven  Vermaele  Cofounder  and  CEO  Lieven.Vermaele@sdnsquare.com  

   Visit  us  at  www.sdnsquare.com