Inkra Goes VirtualInkra Goes Virtual

Inkra Networks Inc. has shut down, Light Reading sources say.

The company closed its doors at the end of May, according to those close to the situation. The more than 100 employees were cut and the technology assets were sold to two different bidders.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) bought bits and pieces of the company's intellectual property, these sources say. Cisco got the company's management system and Nortel picked up Inkra's hardware and some software as well.

Inkra's promise of delivering virtualization was one that was very relevant to data center managers -- and the company was prolific on the topic (see Virtualization Eliminates Uncertainty, Keeping IT Simple, Utility Computing: Where Is It At?, and Let's Get Virtual). Its Virtual Service Switch, simply put, allowed data center managers to deploy multiple instances of a variety of security and management services -- all from the same appliance.

Using Inkra's Virtual Service Switch platform, its carrier customers could, for instance, economically offer a managed firewall service to customers without having to buy a separate standalone device for each customer managed.

The company had some customers, too. Telindus Group NV (Euronext: Tel.BR), Savvis Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: SVVS), and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) all used its gear -- and all those customers are more or less stranded, sources say.

Inkra raised $67 million since its inception, but word on the street was that it desperately needed another funding round -- and its backers backed away.

Calls to Sanjay Dhawan, the company's founder and its CEO, until July 2004, were not returned.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading