Why NAAM Now?

At this point, unless you live in a cave, you know the story. AI infrastructure buildouts are exploding. At last count, at least $800 billion is expected to be spent on AI infrastructure this year, with trillions of dollars to be deployed over the next few years, according to Futuriom research.

Deploying infrastructure at this scale is hard to do, and networking is the hardest part of it. An AI cloud runs across several network fabrics at once— thernet, InfiniBand, the NVL72 scale-up fabric, and virtual and edge networking—each with its own control plane. None of it sits still: Every time an operator adds, resizes, or removes a tenant, those fabrics have to be reconfigured in concert across every layer, and one misconfiguration can take a cluster down or leak one tenant’s data into another’s. The situation demands a new approach to orchestration and automation.

That need is giving rise to a new category of orchestration software—one built to automate the network build-out of GPU clusters, abstract the fabrics beneath them, and enforce hard multi-tenancy in hardware. Netris labels its approach NAAM, for Network Automation, Abstraction, and Multi-Tenancy, and has become the platform neoclouds standardize on as the category takes shape.

This market opportunity has now been embraced by a team of a16z partners that has extensive experience in networking and infrastructure automation, which indicates that the challenge is being noticed. General partner Guido Appenzeller led the round and is joining the Netris board. Investment is also supported by a16z general partners Martin Casado and Raghu Raghuram, who between them helped build the last generation of datacenter networking. Casado founded Nicira, the startup that pioneered software-defined networking and was acquired by VMware in 2012; Raghuram rose to become VMware’s CEO. Backing Netris is, in effect, a bet that the AI cloud needs the same kind of reinvention they led for the data center.

Futuriom research shows that many AI cloud providers, including the hyperscalers, neoclouds, and altscalers, are looking for better software abstraction tools that allow them to manage many different types of infrastructure from a variety of vendors, especially in networking. So that’s why there is huge potential for Netris’s NAAM category.

Nvidia Behind Netris Growth

Netris has been meeting this strong demand, with a strong Nvidia partnership behind its growth. In the last 12 months, Netris says it has experienced 800% annual recurring revenue growth, enabling network automation and multi-tenancy for 35+ AI clusters across the world’s largest neoclouds, sovereign AI operators, and AI factories.

Nvidia customers use Netris orchestration and abstraction software for hardware deployments worldwide. In addition to Nvidia, Netris has built an ecosystem of partners with other technology companies including Mirantis, Rafay, Red Hat, Spectro Cloud, vCluster, and HPE.

According to sources I have spoken with, Netris is especially good at solving the problems of abstracting networking and configuring multi-tenancy across a variety of multivendor hardware infrastructures. Multi-tenancy, which was a key driver of cloud services, enables infrastructure to be partitioned for separate customers. This is a particular challenge when selling GPU and AI compute as-a-service.

While many networking systems have their own orchestration and management tools—such as those from Arista, Cisco, HPE, and Nvidia—they often fail to solve orchestration and multi-tenancy across complex, multivendor environments. This was an important topic at the recent Cisco Live event in Las Vegas and a driver behind Cisco’s own abstraction and orchestration product, Cloud Control. But it’s not yet clear how Cloud Control will interoperate with non-Cisco systems.

Nvidia has quickly risen to become one of the largest networking vendors in AI infrastructure, and it also has a partnership with Cisco. The fact that many large Nvidia neocloud and sovereign AI customers are using Netris speaks volumes.

Netris customers include AI clouds such as Lightning AI, STN, Boost Run, and TensorWave; sovereign AI cloud providers, including TELUS, DCAI, and YOTTA; AI factories, including Foxconn-backed Visionbay.ai, operator of Taiwan’s largest GPU cluster, and Firmus, operator of Australia's largest renewable-powered sovereign AI factory; and AI platform providers such as HPE, which delivers a full-stack AI solution for customers in research, education, and state and local government.

a16z Sees an AI Cloud Opportunity

The presence of a16z’s top partners in this deal shows the firm sees the network abstraction challenge as an intriguing opportunity.

"Every era of computing has needed a new networking foundation — first for the virtualized data center, then for the cloud, and now for AI, " said Appenzeller. “GPU clusters run across many fabrics at once, and legacy automation was never built for that. Netris is the platform AI cloud operators standardize on to solve it, and we are excited to partner with them on this journey.”

Appenzeller is joining the Netris Board of Directors. Casado and Raghuram will also help advise Netris.

In a video, Casado reflected on some of the parallels between Netris and his successful SDN years with Nicira and VMware. “We’re in the early innings of the largest growth and compute we’ve ever seen in the AI wave. It will need SDN-type approaches. It will need what Netris is doing. So we think this is going to be the standard for every company going forward.”

Netris, which already has a strong roster of companies along with the support of Nvidia, says it will use the funding to expand its team and global presence and to grow its partner ecosystem as AI infrastructure scales worldwide.

"Netris spent years building the platform AI cloud operators now standardize on," said Netris CEO Saroyan."That foundation is why we’ve reached 35+ live deployments at many of the largest AI clouds in the world and built the ecosystem around them. Andreessen Horowitz has a long track record backing category-defining infrastructure companies. Martin Casado, Raghu Raghuram, and Guido Appenzeller revolutionized networking for datacenters. Netris is doing the same for AI.”

Disclosure: Futuriom provides paid research and marketing services to technology companies, with the goal of providing accurate insight into how cloud and AI infrastructure markets are evolving. These services include subscription research, custom research, and report sponsorships. In the past twelve months, some of the companies mentioned in this article have purchased research services from Futuriom, including Arista, Cisco, and Netris. As a policy, the author holds no positions in individual technology stocks covered in articles.