Large companies’ path toward the public cloud hardly happens without friction. To simplify this process, cloud management startup Aviatrix Systems Inc. has enhanced the services it offers on top of the leading cloud provider Amazon Web Services Inc.

Five-year-old Aviatrix provides networking and security services that work across all the major infrastructure platforms. It allows companies that use multiple clouds to centralize management operations in one interface, instead of handling the administration of each deployment separately. The company’s new service, CloudWAN, announced at the beginning of the month, embraces native cloud from AWS, including the new AWS Transit Gateway network manager, and extends Aviatrix’s intelligent orchestration and control to existing Cisco IOS branch office routers.

“We are very complementary to AWS; we sit on top of that,” said Steve Mullaney (pictured), president and chief executive officer of Aviatrix. “We leverage those basic constructs, we program those constructs, and then we extend that functionality to deliver that functionality that they need.”

Mullaney spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the recent AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. They discussed the challenges of business moving to the cloud, Aviatrix’s networking services, and its partnership with AWS. (* Disclosure below.)

Around the center of gravity

The Aviatrix controller configures enterprise branch office routers to direct traffic over the optimal path to applications on AWS, according to Mullaney. Therefore, customers leverage existing Cisco branch office routers without requiring expensive upgrades to hardware or software.

“That is the last piece, the friction. It is always in that physical-to-cloud transition that all the complexity is,” he said. “I just need to get better, optimal access, performance and latency into AWS because that is the center of gravity.”

The complexity of transitioning to the cloud depends on the size of the company. For small-to-medium businesses, it does not make sense to go with multiple clouds, according to Mullaney. “If your needs are not that complex, pick one cloud,” he said.

But big companies are usually multicloud. “Enterprises are going to pick where the workloads run best, and so they are going to elevate up and build an architecture that works across all of them,” he explained. “I don’t think multicloud means ‘I’m going to move this workload from here to here.’ Maybe in 20 years, but I doubt it.”

Aviatrix’s customers are mainly IT corporate teams, not developers, Mullaney explained. “These guys understand [Border Gateway Protocol], they understand networking, and they’re in charge now,” he added.

As a fast-growing startup, Aviatrix now has over 400 business customers. To add staff to its sales, product development, customer support, and other core teams, it recently announced that it has raised a $40-million funding round led by Charles River Ventures.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS re:Invent event. (* Disclosure: Aviatrix Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Aviatrix nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE