Pertino, Inc., a cloud networking innovator set to transform business networking, announced today that it has closed an $8.85 million Series A round of venture funding with Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Founded in 2011 by a team of networking and security innovators, which includes Craig Elliott, formerly CEO of Packeteer and International General Manager of Apple's internet and online services, Pertino Networks is reinventing business networking for the cloud era. With Pertino, organizations with limited IT resources will be able to, for the first time, realize enterprise-class networking capabilities with revolutionary simplicity, security and flexibility.

"The cloud and 'as-a-service' delivery models have transformed the IT landscape from a computing, storage and application perspective while, at the same time, the network paradigm has changed little," said Craig Elliott, CEO of Pertino Networks. "As a result, networks that once enabled businesses now constrain them when it comes to harnessing the disruptive capabilities and economies of the cloud. Pertino Networks was founded to radically simplify and alter the economics of business networks by bringing them into the cloud era."

The market for cloud-based IT infrastructure and services is set to explode. According to a July 2011 report published by market research firm In-Stat, businesses in the United States will spend more than $13 billion on cloud computing and managed hosting services by 2014, of which IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) related spending is forecasted to achieve triple digit annual growth to $4 billion.

"Software-defined networking is poised to modernize datacenter networks, but is not optimized to address the breadth of cost, complexity and security challenges across the entire business network," states Matt Howard, General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). "Pertino Networks' software-driven approach leverages virtualization, social networking concepts, and the transformative capabilities of the cloud to revolutionize and 'consumerize' networking business-wide and beyond."

"Networks have evolved little over the past decade, yet everything they connect has changed dramatically. Apps, computing and storage are rapidly shifting to the cloud, users are increasingly mobile and consumer devices are rapidly proliferating," states Barry Eggers, Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners. "We see Pertino Networks at the forefront of a new generation of software-driven and cloud-enabled platforms that will finally give cloud-parity to business networks."

The funds will be used to expand engineering and go-to-market resources.

Craig Elliott and other noted networking and tech luminaries and private investors participated in the round, including: Steve Campbell, Co-founder and former CEO of Stratacom; Joe Graziano, former CFO of Apple and Sun Microsystems; Rob Ryan, Co-founder and former CEO of Ascend Communications; Peter Wagner, former General Partner at Accel Partners; Gaurav Garg, Special Limited Partner at Sequoia Ventures; and Jeffrey Drazan, Managing Partner at Bertram Capital.

About Pertino Networks

Pertino Networks is a cloud networking software company started by a team of proven network technology executives and innovators from Packeteer, BlueCoat and Mercury Interactive who share a revolutionary vision for the future of business networks. By leveraging disruptive technologies and precepts from cloud computing, virtualization and social networks, Pertino is reinventing networking for the cloud era in terms of simplicity, security and flexibility. Its cloud networking software radically simplifies the way businesses securely connect their people and partners with the IT resources they need onsite, on the road, and in the cloud. Headquartered in Cupertino, CA, Pertino is a venture-backed company funded by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Lightspeed Venture Partners. If you are interested in being part of the next massive cloud-enabled revolution in IT, please visit www.pertino.com/jobs.

About Norwest Venture Partners (NVP)

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture and growth equity investment firm that manages more than $3.7 billion in capital. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, NVP has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel and Hong Kong. NVP makes early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: information technology, business services, financial services, infrastructure, technology enabled services and consumer. NVP has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 50 years and has funded over 500 companies since inception. For more information visit: www.nvp.com.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management. Lightspeed's investment professionals and advisors are located in Silicon Valley, China, India, and Israel. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 150 companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Calista, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Fusion-io, Galileo Technology, Growth Networks, Informatica, Kiva Software, LivingSocial, Lucky Pai, Maker Communications, Phone.com, Playdom, Pliant Technology, Riverbed, TutorVista, Virsa Systems, and Waveset. For more information, visit the Lightspeed website: www.lightspeedvp.com.