SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Pluribus Networks, the leader in open networking and controllerless software-defined networking (SDN) automation, and Trilogy Networks today announced a partnership through which Pluribus will join the Rural Cloud Initiative (RCI), a nationwide strategic alliance to accelerate digital transformation in the agricultural and energy industries in rural environments. The relationship will enable Trilogy to deploy the Pluribus Netvisor ONE® and Adaptive Cloud Fabric™ (ACF) software across its distributed cloud network platform, dramatically simplifying network operations, reducing costs and delivering comprehensive automation, security and visibility for Trilogy's highly distributed ConEx edge compute architecture.

The Rural Cloud Initiative has been formed to bring together an ecosystem of technology providers, wired and wireless service providers and application developers to extend the power of IoT and Artificial Intelligence to underserved rural markets. In its first phase, RCI will utilize edge computing and 5G public and private wireless to support precision agriculture with real-time data collected and acted upon from connected IoT devices. The ultimate goal is to double the crop output over the next few decades with no increase in land, water or cost. Ensuring the integrity and dramatically increasing the productivity of the United States food supply chain is a major objective of RCI and has become even more critical in the current pandemic environment.

The strategic partnership with Pluribus will enable Trilogy to use the Adaptive Cloud Fabric as the network fabric for its ConEx edge cloud platform, which will deploy cloud resources into rural central offices and at base station locations. The Pluribus Adaptive Cloud Fabric is an open, controllerless SDN architecture that is designed for highly distributed environments and that will deliver a cost-, space- and power-efficient solution that provides full network automation, a virtualized overlay fabric, network slicing/segmentation and comprehensive visibility and analytics.

"For precision agriculture to achieve the maximum potential, it's imperative the edge be brought directly to the farm operation," said George Woodward, CEO at Trilogy Networks and board member on the US Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force. "Partnering with telecom operators and optimizing our platform with a powerful software-defined networking fabric from Pluribus will enable the Rural Cloud Initiative to deliver the real-time business intelligence needed by America's two million farmers."

"To perform effectively, infrastructure deployed in distributed cloud environments must meet specific requirements related to reduced operational complexity, cost constraints, space limitations and power attributes," said Brad Casemore, Vice President, Datacenter Networks at IDC. "The controllerless SDN-driven approach from Pluribus is well suited to the specialized networking needs of distributed cloud environments, providing automated network intelligence and simplicity in a cost-efficient manner."

"Our Adaptive Cloud Fabric is an ideal fit for Trilogy's ConEx edge cloud platform as it provides security, visibility and automation in highly distributed environments," said Kumar Srikantan, CEO at Pluribus Networks. "Closing the digital divide is critical for all segments of the global economy to thrive, and by bringing the network edge closer to the farm, we can support an important mission during a time when the world has never been more reliant on the integrity of the food chain. By removing the complexity, cost, latency and risk associated with distributed cloud networking, we can deliver solutions that possess the specific requirements for highly distributed applications, such as precision agriculture, to succeed."

Pluribus Networks