Prem Jain, Pensando Systems | Welcome to the New Edge 2019
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2019-10-18

Prem Jain, CEO, Pensando Systems sits down with Jeff Frick for Welcome to the New Edge by Pensando Systems at Goldman Sachs HQ in NYC.

https://siliconangle.com/2019/10/29/cisco-alums-reunite-prem-jains-pensando-spins-edge-computing-conversation-pensandoio-guestoftheweek/

Cisco alums reunite: Prem Jain’s Pensando spins into the edge-computing conversation

There are not many tech startups that emerge from stealth mode with a chairman who formerly ran one of the leading networking companies in the world or whose founders accounted for literally billions in value for the chairman’s previous business.

Yet that’s indeed the story behind Pensando Systems Inc., a programmable, edge-accelerated platform that emerged from stealth mode earlier this month in a launch at the Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC headquarters in lower Manhattan. Led by Prem Jain (pictured), chief executive officer of Pensando, along with a team of former top executives from Cisco Systems Inc., the company has mapped out a rigorous roadmap for success.

The new firm has ambitious plans to transform edge computing, claim valuable real estate in the software-defined cloud and compete head-to-head with Amazon Web Services Inc.’s internally used Nitro custom configured networking circuits. And the seeds of its bold plan were sown decades ago not by spinning off, but spinning in.

John Chambers, former Cisco CEO and now chairman of Pensando, embarked on a strategy in the 1990s where the company would bankroll “spin-ins,” startups that weren’t part of the firm but were developing technology that Cisco would presumably want to acquire. The result was the purchase of three companies — Andiamo, Nuova and Insieme — for a total value of over $2 billion. All of the “spin-ins” turned into billion-dollar businesses for Cisco, and at the center of each of these successful acquisitions was the man who is now the CEO of Pensando.

Jain, along with former Cisco senior vice presidents Luca Cafiero, Soni Jiandani and Mario Mazzola, didn’t depart the networking company in 2016 with plans to jump back on the tech startup roller coaster, but the challenge of building revolutionary new technology for the next wave of edge computing was just too good to pass up.

“After we left, we thought we were going to retire, but we talked about it and thought there were still transitions happening in the industry and maybe we had a few more years to go back and do something that is very challenging,” Jain said. “Everything we have done in the past is to create an impact in the industry and make that transition which is happening very successful.”

Jain spoke with Jeff Frick, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Pensando — Welcome to the New Edge launch event in New York City. They discussed the technology behind Pensando’s programmable chips, enterprise migration to edge computing, and how Jain’s company plans to offer features unique to the industry (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE features Prem Jain in its Guest of the Week feature.

Bringing services to the data
Behind Pensando’s big bet is a noteworthy transformation taking place where enterprises are finding advantage in being able to offload networking, storage, monitoring and security onto a programmable chip. This was the basis for the AWS purchase of Israeli startup Annapurna Labs for $350 million in 2015, which became the basis for Nitro.

Why is loading so much on silicon a good idea? For starters, a software-defined platform can remove the necessity for load balancers, firewalls, or encryption appliances. The key is bringing critical information technology services to the edge, where the data is located, rather than to the cloud or a remote data center. That’s a trend that Gartner Inc. believes will become especially important, as it has predicted that nearly 75% of data will be generated at the edge five years from now.

“Data is very important for anybody in any business,” Jain said. “We wanted to be close to big data, and the closest place to big data is where the application is running. In the enterprise, we are basically replacing a lot of appliances, simplifying the architectures, and making sure they can enable this service as they grow more.”

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 (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Pensando — Welcome to the New Edge launch event. Neither Pensando Systems, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)


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