6WIND
{{Short description|French networking software company}}
{{buzzword|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox company
| name = 6WIND
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| key_people = Julien Dahan, CEO
| industry = Software
| products = Virtual Service Routers, 6WINDCloud, Virtual Host Accelerator, 6WINDGate
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| foundation = {{Start date|2000|09|01}}
| location_city = Paris
| location_country = France
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| locations = United States, United Kingdom, Singapore
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6WIND ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|k|s|w|ɪ|n|d}}) is a virtual networking software company delivering disaggregated and cloud-native solutions to CSPs and enterprises globally. The company is privately held and headquartered in the West Paris area, in Montigny-le-Bretonneux. 6WIND has a global presence with offices in the US and APAC. The company provides virtualized networking software which is deployed in bare-metal or in virtual machines on COTS servers in public & private clouds. Their solutions are disaggregated and containerized based on the cloud-native architecture.
History
6WIND was founded in 2000 as a spin-out from Thales Group (previously Thomson-CSF), a provider of electronics for aerospace, defense and security. A 3.75 million euro investment from Sofinnova Partners and others was announced in 2004, and 5 million euros in 2004.{{Cite news |title= Sofinnova Partners announces a €5 million second investment round to support the development of 6WIND |work= Press release |publisher= Sofinnova Partners |date= February 9, 2004 |url= http://www.sofinnova.fr/en/sofinnova-partners-announces-a-e5-million-second-investment-round-to-support-the-development-of-6wind/ |access-date= March 8, 2017 }} Partners include Red Hat, VMware and Wind River Systems.[http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4190686/Wind-River-6Wind-partner-on-multicore-CPUs Wind River, 6Wind partner on multicore CPUs], EE Times, January 14, 2008. Equipment vendors that provide boards and systems utilizing 6WIND software include Emerson Network Power.Anne-Francoise Pele. [http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4193836/6Wind-joins-Emerson-s-partnership-program "6Wind joins Emerson's partnership program"], November 18, 2008.
Other partners include: Kalray for data centers,{{cite web |date=2016-04-13 |title=Kalray and 6WIND Announce New Partnership |url=http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2016-04/37048640-kalray-and-6wind-announce-new-partnership-008.htm |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=finanznachrichten.de}} Hewlett-Packard for acceleration technology on ProLiant servers,{{Cite news |title= 6WIND Turbo IPsec Performance Certified on Hewlett Packard Enterprise ProLiant Servers for Cost-effective Security Gateway Solutions for All Size Networks |date= February 2, 2016 |work= Press release |url= http://www.broadcastnewsroom.com/article/6WIND-Turbo-IPsec-Performance-Certified-on-Hewlett-Packard-Enterprise-ProLiant-Servers-for-Cost-effective-Security-Gateway-Solutions-for-All-Size-Networks-4273845 |access-date= March 8, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160603160848/http://www.broadcastnewsroom.com/article/6WIND-Turbo-IPsec-Performance-Certified-on-Hewlett-Packard-Enterprise-ProLiant-Servers-for-Cost-effective-Security-Gateway-Solutions-for-All-Size-Networks-4273845 |archive-date= June 3, 2016 |url-status= usurped }} Dell,{{cite web|url=http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/story/dell-introduces-new-nfv-platform-starter-kits/2014-10-14|title=Dell introduces new NFV platform, starter kits - FierceWireless|website=www.fiercewireless.com}} Canonical,{{cite web |last=Nestor |first=Marius |date=2015-12-07 |title=Canonical Partners with 6WIND to Accelerate the Growth of Ubuntu Cloud Networking |url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/canonical-partners-with-6wind-to-accelerate-the-growth-of-ubuntu-cloud-networking-497042.shtml |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=softpedia.com}} Alcatel-Lucent for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.{{cite web|url=https://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2015/alcatel-lucent-signs-agreements-red-hat-advantech-and-6wind-accelerate-delivery-virtualized-radio|title=Alcatel-Lucent signs agreements with Red Hat, Advantech and 6WIND to accelerate delivery of virtualized radio access networks|date=15 December 2015|access-date=11 May 2016|archive-date=11 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611044952/https://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2015/alcatel-lucent-signs-agreements-red-hat-advantech-and-6wind-accelerate-delivery-virtualized-radio|url-status=dead}}
In April 2013, the company announced it would support an open-source software project for the Data Plane Development Kit from Intel.{{Cite news |title= 6WIND Announces dpdk.org Open-Source Project to Accelerate Development of Intel Architecture-Based Networking Products |work= Press release |date= April 9, 2013 |url= http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10612220.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160604020605/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10612220.htm |url-status= dead |archive-date= June 4, 2016 |access-date= March 8, 2017 }} In early 2012, 6WIND introduced a mobile edition and cloud edition of 6WINDGate, for 4G mobile phone companies and cloud computing.{{Cite news |title= 6WIND Now #1 Supplier of Networking Software for LTE Infrastructure, Extends Product Line to Cloud Infrastructure Solutions |work= Press release |date= February 13, 2012 |author= Janine E. Mooney |url= https://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/news/2012/02/6wind-now-1-supplier-networking-software-lte-infrastructure-extends-product-line-cloud |access-date= March 8, 2017 }}
The company announced its Speed Series of packaged software in late 2014, marketed for network function virtualization (NFV). A product called 6WIND Virtual Accelerator allowing hypervisor scaling. A venture capital investment from Cisco Systems was announced in 2014.{{Cite news |title= SDN/NFV Wars: Cisco tries to put the breeze up HP by blowing money into French company 6Wind |author= Martyn Warwick |work= Telecom TV |date= 2014 |url= http://www.telecomtv.com/articles/network-innovation/sdn-nfv-wars-cisco-tries-to-put-the-breeze-up-hp-by-blowing-money-into-french-company-6wind-12617/ |access-date= March 8, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170126172845/http://www.telecomtv.com/articles/network-innovation/sdn-nfv-wars-cisco-tries-to-put-the-breeze-up-hp-by-blowing-money-into-french-company-6wind-12617/ |archive-date= January 26, 2017 |url-status= dead }}{{Cite news |title= Cisco slings simoleons at software-defined networking biz 6Wind |author= Richard Chirgwin |date= July 7, 2015 |work= The Channel |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/07/cisco_slings_samoleans_at_6wind/ |access-date= March 8, 2017 }} In 2015, the company announced its Turbo Router Turbo IPsec software.{{cite web |title= 6WIND Offering Accelerated L3 Virtual Appliances |work= Sponsored blog posting |publisher= Packet Pushers |date= October 21, 2015 |url= http://packetpushers.net/6wind-offering-accelerated-l3-virtual-appliances/ |access-date= March 8, 2017 }}
In 2016 Radware said that their Aleon NG VA product used a product of the company along with OpenStack.{{Cite news |title= Radware, 6Wind Team on Virtual Acceleration |work= Press release |date= April 19, 2016 |url= http://www.lightreading.com/nfv/nfv-tests-and-trials/radware-6wind-team-on-virtual-acceleration/d/d-id/722781 |access-date= March 8, 2017 }}{{Cite news |title= Radware's Virtual Alteon ADC Achieves Industry Highest Performance in OpenStack Environment |work= Press release |date= April 26, 2016 |url= https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/04/26/832716/0/en/Radware-s-Virtual-Alteon-ADC-Achieves-Industry-Highest-Performance-in-OpenStack-Environment.html |access-date= March 8, 2017 }} That same year Mirantis announced integration with 6WIND for data centers and NFV.
The company promotes its performance by publishing performance tests.{{cite web |title= Blazing performance with 6WIND Speed Series Turbo Appliances |date= September 24, 2015 |work= SDx Central web site |url= https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/featured/6wind-speed-series-performance-report/2015/09/ |access-date= March 8, 2017 }}
In 2015 Light Reading mentioned that 6WIND software allowed Italian service provider NGI to build a router marketed for software-defined networking.{{Cite news |title= Italian SP Deploys Homemade SDN Appliance |date= February 17, 2015 |work= Light Reading |author= Mitch Wagner |url= http://www.lightreading.com/carrier-sdn/sdn-technology/italian-sp-deploys-homemade-sdn-appliance/d/d-id/713802 |access-date= March 8, 2017 }}
In August 2017, 6WIND announced a "replacement program" for Brocade {{Proper name|vRouter}} users.{{cite web |date=2017-08-24 |title=6WIND Lures Brocade vRouter Customers Left Out in Cold |url=https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/6wind-lures-brocade-vrouter-customers-left-out-in-cold/2017/08/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=sdxcentral.com}} 6WIND {{Proper name|vRouter}} is based on DPDK traffic runs in the fast path outside of the Linux kernel, avoiding potential Linux kernel processing bottlenecks.{{cite web |date=2017-08-25 |title=6WIND Offers Replacement Program for Dead Brocade vRouter - Packet Pushers |url=https://packetpushers.net/6wind-replaces-brocade-vrouter/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=packetpushers.net}} This announcement has been followed by two articles from The Register and SDxCentral comparing 6WIND with dedicated equipment and explaining how the {{Proper name|vRouter}} solution helped a Spanish ISP to become SDN ready.{{cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/01/network_roundup_july_1_2018/|title=Be The Packet. Take each hop it makes. Your network will repay you|first=Richard|last=Chirgwin|date=1 July 2018|website=The Register}}{{cite web|url=https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/spanish-isp-replaces-cisco-hardware-routers-with-6wind-vrouter/2018/06/|title=Spanish ISP Replaces Cisco Hardware Routers With 6WIND vRouter|website=SDxCentral}}
In November 2022, 6WIND announced a strategic partnership with IP-Tribe in APAC.{{Cite web |date=2022-11-29 |title=6WIND and IP-Tribe announce Strategic Partnership in APAC |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/6wind-ip-tribe-announce-strategic-090000378.html |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Yahoo Finance |language=en-US}}