The 2023 Flexera State of the Cloud report reveals that 87% of enterprises have already embraced the multi-cloud paradigm, signifying a shift in how organizations approach their IT infrastructure. Adding to that, 72% of these enterprises have opted for a hybrid cloud strategy, leveraging both public and private cloud environments to strike a balance between flexibility and control. This strategic diversification is driven by the cloud's capability to accelerate the deployment of new applications, ushering in an era of unprecedented agility.

However, there are challenges that come hand-in-hand with this cloud-driven transformation. Despite the speed at which new applications are deployed, the networks required to securely connect these applications to customers and partner ecosystems lag behind. The resulting delays hinder business growth and impose financial burdens on organizations. The inherent complexity of self-managed cloud networks also introduces persistent operational challenges and escalates costs over time.

Hence the need for a solution to streamline network deployment and management becomes increasingly imperative in the ever-expanding cloud landscape.

Alkira and Itential will provide that solution through the integration of their two platforms, bringing automation, simplicity, speed and control to cloud networking for enterprises.

"Today's enterprise network is a complex combination of traditional and modern network solutions, managed by multiple teams with different tools and varying levels of automation capabilities," said Chris Wade, chief technology officer, Itential. "Enterprises need consistent automation capabilities across every network domain and integration with many IT systems to provide self-service automation to their customers and end-users.

Alkira simplifies the provisioning, operation and management of multi-cloud networking, making it straightforward to connect different sites, users or cloud applications. Alkira also provides hybrid cloud connectivity, enabling users to connect their on-prem environments to Alkira's CXP with traffic running on the Alkira cloud backbone.

Itential enables infrastructure teams to automate network and security configuration changes across hybrid multi-cloud networks and quickly integrate with IT systems to orchestrate the entire end-to-end change management process.

Together, the platforms give enterprises the ability to deploy, manage and operate enterprise grade networks for cloud and on-prem with full end-to-end automation, reducing time to market for business-critical services.

The joint integration addresses several use cases, including cloud onboarding, cloud to internet connectivity, cloud security, on-prem to cloud connectivity, multi-cloud connectivity and cloud backbone (inter-region connectivity).

“By integrating these two platforms at the API level, network teams can build automations that combine Alkira's unique cloud features with Itential's ability to ensure compliance and consistency across physical and cloud infrastructure," said Atif Khan, chief technology officer and co-founder, Alkira.