IP Infusion acquires Canadian IT consultancy Northforge Innovations
Gatineau, QC-based Northforge Innovations has been acquired by Santa Clara, CA-headquartered IT firm IP Infusions. Northforge, which specializes in network infrastructure and security consulting, will help IP Infusions reinforce and expand their open box (white box) operating system for service providers and data centres.
Northforge Innovations is a Gatineau, QC-based software consulting and development firm specializing in network infrastructure and security. On the network infrastructure side, Northforge helps clients implement and manage the communications paths that link users and services with internal and external networks – whether it’s VoIP, open networking, Ethernet, or whatever else. On the security side, the IT consultancy develops software to protect clients’ network infrastructure with Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), denial of service and distributed denial of service (DoS/DDoS) protection frameworks, and security protocols.
In addition to its Gatineau headquarters, Northforge also has offices in Montreal, Boston, and Ra’anana, Israel. Founded in 2004, the firm provides software consulting and development services to over 75 OEM network communications companies – including IP Infusion.
Now, the Canadian firm has been purchased by its former client IP Infusion, a Santa Clara, CA-headquartered IT firm. The company is a leading provider of disaggregated network solutions which help reduce costs, increase flexibility, and accelerate implementation of new features and services. With network disaggregation, clients can source network hardware and operating systems separately, without being locked into a vendor. IP Infusion’s OcNOS white box OS (with open, visible coding internals) lets clients switch from traditional to open networks, allowing them to build and manage networks on their own, unlocking flexibility and faster deployment of features.
Founded in 1995, IP Infusion also has offices in Tokyo, Seoul, Bangalore, Beijing, and Oberhausen, Germany. Since 2006, the firm has been a subsidiary of Tokyo-based ACCESS CO., a global provider of software for the Internet of Things (IoT).
IP Infusion sees a burgeoning market for disaggregated network solutions, as networking service providers and data centres upgrade to 5G services. These companies are looking to cut costs and improve their ability to implement new features – something that the OcNOS solution allows them to do. The acquisition of Northforge will help IP Infusion strengthen the white box OcNOS, while increasing the hardware products that can be operated by the OS.
"Together, IP Infusion and Northforge will deliver next-generation OcNOS to satisfy the network quality and functionality requirements of service providers and data centre operators," said Atsushi Ogata, President and CEO of IP Infusion. "We believe that our combined technology leadership, from IP Infusion’s years of networking operating software experience to Northforge’s extensive network communications expertise, will give networking customers more choices and the flexibility that disaggregated networking brings.”
Commenting on the deal, Northforge President and CEO Brenda Pastorek said, “Northforge brings to the acquisition a high level of software development capacity, expert knowledge, and experience that will strengthen and accelerate IP Infusion’s OcNOS presence in the network communications industry, in addition to providing customized implementation services to OEMs in the network communication industry.”
Northforge will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of IP Infusion, and a consolidated subsidiary of ACCESS CO. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
There has been a healthy appetite for acquiring Canadian IT consultancies as firms seek to reinforce and expand their digital capabilities. Recent deals includes Germany’s GFT acquiring Canadian firm V-NEO, Deloitte’s purchase of Halifax-based Third Wave, and Calian Group’s acquisition of Secure Technologies.
