Pertino, a computer networking software company that enables small businesses to create their virtual network connections, has landed a big fish of a Japanese partner: SoftBank Corp. 's Commerce & Services unit will be its sales channel in the Japan, and the second company to sign on to Pertino's BlueSky Partner Program.

Pertino , which last fall inked a deal with Dell Technologies (Nasdaq: DELL) to integrate its Pertino Cloud Services Engine into the Dell marketplace, is now looking to major growth in the Japanese market, where small to midsized enterprises are adopting cloud at a significant clip, says CMO Todd Krautkremer. (See Pertino Offers Network Service Virtualization (NSV) .)

For the service launch, SoftBank C&S has already named two major distribution partners: FujiSoft Inc. and NEC Networks & System Integration Corp., and is expected to name a handful of other major players shortly, Krautkremer says.

See the latest happenings as telecom business services migrate to the cloud in our cloud services section here on Light Reading.

Pertino enables SMEs to essentially create their own networks running on an Amazon Web Services Inc. cloud or other cloud computing service, Krautkremer explains. Pertino uses software-defined networking to offer a cloud-based service that allows enterprises or service providers build secure virtual private networks to link users and resources without deploying hardware or employing IT staff. Customers log onto the Pertino service and can make connections among employees including mobile and remote workers, or on a more temporary basis to contractors or suppliers, for example. (See Pertino Says: Go Build a Network!)

"Sofbank C&S, which is a distribution arm focused on the ICT community, will be combining Pertino with its Brightstar [mobile device distribution subsidiary] to provide a cloud-based infrastructure for software as a service and mobile applications," Krautkremer says. "They are targeting enterprises, but also managed service providers and ISPs."

The integration partners already named are bundling Pertino with cloud and managed services, he adds. The advantage of this network-as-a-service platform is that it lets small businesses eliminate the complexity around networking, and therefore lets them use more applications that are cloud-based and distributed.

To date, Pertino has 40,000 endpoints connected on its NaaS platform, and expects the Japanese distribution deal to expand that significantly, he says.

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading