Aruba Networks’ Dominic Orr Becomes Chairman Of AI Startup Ordr
Aruba Networks’ former longtime leader and networking visionary, Dominic Orr, is the new chairman of Ordr, a venture-backed startup that launched out of stealth mode Tuesday with a network-level security platform that leverages artificial intelligence.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup, which has a channel partner strategy, unveiled the Ordr Systems Control Engine (SCE) Tuesday, which it dubs as the first actionable AI-based systems control engine that fully maps every microscopic device detail and its context at scale to continuously inspect, classify and baseline every behavior of every device. SCE utilizes existing infrastructure and can be deployed in minutes with zero impact to other products.
“There is exponential growth in both the volume and the heterogeneity of network-connected systems,” said Orr in a statement. “This has created a serious need for a purpose-built solution that utilizes big data analytics and AI to address this rapid expansion without additional burden on network and security resources.”
[Related: HPE Names Vishal Lall Aruba COO To Step Up Edge Computing Charge]
Ordr said Tuesday it has raised a total of $16.5 million led by security-focused venture capital firm TenEleven Ventures and original seed investor Wing Ventures. The company has been in stealth mode since November 2015.
Orr was the chairman and CEO of networking star Aruba Networks from 2006 to 2015, when the company was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise for $3 billion. Orr became president of Aruba, an HPE company, but left in 2017.
Ordr will be led by another former Aruba Networks leader in Greg Murphy as the startup’s new CEO. Murphy joined Aruba in 2008 through its acquisition of network management software provider Airwave Wireless. He was previously vice president of business operations for HPE’s Aruba Group, a 4,000-person networking and Internet of Things business unit inside HPE.
“Business leaders need to know that their critical assets are protected and how they are being used,” said Murphy in a statement. “IT and security teams need true closed-loop solutions, not another generation of tools triggering alerts for their staff to resolve. That’s what Ordr is delivering, a cutting-edge yet elegantly simple solution to real-world problems.”
Another former Aruba executive who co-founded Ordr is Gnanaprakasam Pandian, who was previously chief development officer at Aruba responsible for engineering and product management. Pandian, who also was a 17-year veteran at Cisco with roles including director of engineering, is chief product officer at Ordr.
“The volume and diversity of enterprise devices is growing exponentially,” said Pandian. “Yet there has been no analogous change in the way organizations control their network and security infrastructure. Our founding team spent decades developing those technologies. We knew we could add a new class of intelligence to systems from a spectrum of leading vendors, boosting their ability to deliver true security for the new hyper-connected enterprise. We are enabling an infrastructure evolution without requiring new infrastructure investment.”
In addition, Ph.D. Sheausong Yang is Ordr’s co-founder and chief scientist. He was previously chief architect and vice president of technology at Aruba with over 28 years of networking, communications, management software and cloud computing expertise.
Ordr’s architecture is unique in its ability to process enormous quantities of data in real time, using sophisticated AI to deliver closed-loop security, automatically generating and implementing policies directly through existing multi-vendor network and security infrastructure, according to the company.
SCE, which can be sold by solution providers as a managed service, integrates with incumbent network and security infrastructure management tools to implement policies directly and automatically.