Alkira

Alkira is a San Jose, California-based enterprise networking company that delivers network infrastructure as-a-service (NaaS). Its platform lets enterprises design, deploy, and operate connectivity and network services across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, unifying multiple clouds, sites, data centers, and users in a network built entirely in the cloud. The company positions itself as offering an end-to-end secure network infrastructure platform delivered as a service, with integrated networking and security services available globally.

The platform is cloud-native and carrier-agnostic, centering on a control plane — the software layer that programs and orchestrates connectivity — that spans major public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI), on-premises locations, data centers, SaaS platforms, branches, partner ecosystems, and remote users. Customers connect and manage networks using familiar controls, policies, and security systems, without deploying new hardware, managing physical circuits, downloading software, or running on-site appliances or agents, and capacity can be scaled on demand. Marketed capabilities include global deployment of network services in minutes, embedded enterprise-grade security in the network fabric, unified visibility and control, and reduced complexity and total cost of ownership.

Alkira was founded in 2018 by Amir Khan (founder, president and CEO) and Atif Khan, following Amir Khan's earlier career at Cisco and his role as a founding team member, president and CEO of SD-WAN pioneer Viptela, which Cisco acquired in 2017. In May 2024 the company closed a $100 million Series C round led by Tiger Global Management, bringing total funding to $176 million. In May 2026, Lumen Technologies agreed to acquire Alkira; the deal was subsequently completed.

Founding story

Amir Khan spent over 30 years in networking, including two stints at Cisco in the 1990s and early 2000s, and in 2012 was part of the founding team of Viptela, an SD-WAN pioneer he led as president and CEO until Cisco acquired it in 2017. He started his first company at age 48. Observing that enterprises adopting cloud were held back by the network and that the industry offered little ground-up innovation, he launched Alkira the year after the Viptela exit, with co-founder Atif Khan, to bring networking into the cloud as a service. Building the company required assembling a multidisciplinary team of senior networking experts across engineering, product management, sales, solutions architecture and sales engineering who could also mentor junior hires.

Business model

Alkira sells its network infrastructure platform as a subscription/consumption service: customers activate an Alkira license and consume networking and security services on demand rather than purchasing hardware, provisioning physical circuits, or operating software appliances, with capacity scaling up or down and pay-for-what-you-use consumption.

Licensed, as-a-service consumption of network infrastructure, with services activated on demand and billed as consumed rather than sold as capital equipment.

Traction

The company states its solution is trusted by Fortune 100 enterprises, leading system integrators and global managed service providers, and serves enterprise customers globally in financial services, technology, retail, healthcare and manufacturing. Warner Music Group is a named multi-year customer, with its SVP of global infrastructure and security citing simplified network management. Investors cited market traction at the time of the 2024 Series C, and total funding reached $176 million before the company was acquired by Lumen.

Latest developments

Lumen Technologies announced on May 5, 2026 an agreement to acquire Alkira and subsequently announced completion of the transaction. Lumen said it would unify its on-net and off-net services, cloud on-ramps and Multi-Cloud Gateway into a single programmable platform, begin offering Alkira's east-west connectivity services to its enterprise base upon closing, and use Alkira's carrier-agnostic design to extend internationally. Amir Khan said the company chose Lumen's $475 million offer over an IPO because the deal came together quickly and provided global reach, investment and infrastructure. Lumen executives Jim Fowler (EVP & CTO) and Scott Yow (SVP) publicly discussed the integration.