The New New Network
It’s a fun Silicon Valley game to try and figure out the next big thing — our team even has an end of year tradition around it. All of us in this ever-expanding ecosystem of tech innovation are excited by what’s around the corner — the new application or device that is going to change our lives in the years ahead. As investors in the Future of Work, we are all-in on this continual transformation of our professional and personal lives by digital technologies. Investing in startups applying technology in markets as diverse as fintech, food and event planning, we are continually amazed by how entrepreneurs are solving problems in industries that are ripe for change.
Even as we engage deeply with these applications of technology in vertical industries and markets, we pay close attention to trends in technology infrastructure because infrastructure improvements enable dramatic transformations across the entire ecosystem. Finding and supporting technology infrastructure ideas can be extremely impactful and valuable because of this broad application — the trick is finding the right ones! Having spent a substantial part of my career in a key infrastructure market — communications and data networking — I have always been on the lookout for the new new thing in that sector. I am delighted to announce our investment in Aviz Networks, the first Moment-led investment in networking.
Since inception, the data networking industry has been innovative and continued to grow. With the ever present impact of growing network traffic demands from individuals and businesses, vendors have brought new innovations to bear for their customers. However, the business model to bring those innovations to market has not changed substantially since the inception of the industry. Networking systems companies build or buy silicon chips and use those chips to build networking systems (specialized computers) that typically use proprietary software. Customers buy those systems and run their networks within the constraints of a vendor’s walled garden of systems, value added services and support contracts.
This way of buying and using networking technology is touchingly quaint given how much has changed in the broader world of technology infrastructure. Continuing improvements in chips, open source software, cloud computing and the increasing use of AI to improve operations have made computing infrastructure dramatically more dynamic and cost-effective. Customers are ready for their networking infrastructure to see the same benefits.
Aviz is focused on making this change happen. The company is enabling customers to use SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud), an open source network operating system, to build truly multi-vendor networks that interoperates seamlessly with cloud infrastructure. Vishal Shukla and Chidambaram B have been part of the SONiC community since 2019 and along with Gautam Agrawal make up a tenacious and deeply committed founding team. Aviz is going to change how networking gets bought and used. That’s a new new thing to get behind.
