Global investment firm Blackstone announced it entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in network automation platform provider NetBrain Technologies. While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Blackstone’s growth investment in NetBrain valued the technology provider at $750 million.
“AI has the power to transform how enterprises manage network operations and security,” said Vishal Amin, senior managing director at Blackstone Growth, in a statement. “NetBrain is at a pivotal inflection point, with increasing demand for automation across IT, networking, and security teams. Blackstone is excited to help NetBrain expand its global reach while continuing to invest in innovation for customers. Together, we seek to drive the future intersection of network operations (NetOps), security operations (SecOps) and AI, empowering enterprises to achieve total observability and operational excellence.”
NetBrain says its network automation offering is a no-code platform for automating “Day 2” networking operations workflows, including tasks such as troubleshooting, outage prevention, and change management. NetBrain eliminates manual dependencies in network operations and security workflows, according to the company, and these capabilities are critical to manage modern hybrid networks.
“While NetBrain is already the market leader in network automation and AI and continues to grow rapidly. I’m thrilled to partner with Blackstone Growth to accelerate our next phase of expansion,” said Lingping Gao, founder and CEO of NetBrain, in a statement. “Blackstone’s global reach, operational expertise, and deep commitment to innovation will be instrumental in helping us seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead the AI transformation of network operations.”
Blackstone and NetBrain said they believe this investment will help NetBrain continue to build products that “address a critical need in the $30 billion NetOps market, where enterprises face increasing pressure to optimize IT operations, ensure reliability, and mitigate security risks.”
NetBrain reports that more than one-third of Fortune 500 companies rely on its products, and the investment will help it further develop its intent-based network automation technology, which creates a digital-twin of the network and uses AI to orchestrate and automation many manual network operations tasks.
Source:: Network World