Software-defined networking player Pertino has become the latest company in the space to secure the financial muscle to move forward with its plans, raising $20 million in a series B funding round. The company said that the funds will be used to expand its market strategy and service offerings, having previously raised $8.5 million in April last year.

Unlike more established players Intel and Cisco, whose SDN plans are geared towards the bigger enterprises, Pertino aims to push SDN out on a much wider scale, delivering wide-area networks to small and medium sized businesses. Pertino believes that there’s a growing demand for this service among smaller companies, thanks to the popularity of cloud computing, increasing globalization and an ever-more mobile workforce. What with so many remote workers using mobile devices, larger companies have increasingly turned to wide-area networks for their business communications,  and now Pertino wants to reduce the cost and complexity of these services so that everyone can enjoy them.

To do so, Pertino has developed what it calls a “cloud network engine”, capabble of creating cloud networks within a matter of minutes, doing away with the need for hardware, investment and even the expertise that’s normally required. Essentially, Pertino’s solution aims to bring what has always been an extremely cost-prohibitive service to SMBs.

Craig Elliott, CEO of Pertino, tells us about his plans:

“SMBs comprise about half of IT spending worldwide, yet a significant number of these organizations struggle with getting the resources they need to deploy new technology and applications. By leveraging the cloud and SDN to radically simplify networking, Pertino is poised to unlock a massive opportunity.”

Pertino’s planned service will be seriously affordable, costing $30 a month for three users with up to three devices each. The service launched on a limited availability basis last month following a succesful beta launch that saw 250 customers deploy Pertino cloud networks. Since then, Pertino says its customer base has grown to more than 700.