Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Where No Becomes One ... Nokeena Networks' Name Change

I've been acquainted with Nokeena Networks, now Ankeena Networks, for some time, having done a podcast back in June with the CTO, Prabakar Sundarrajan, who is also a co-founder of the company.

Today, while speaking with Prabakar and the VP of Marketing, Anshu Agarwal, I asked the question that's been on my mind since the company announced the name change: why?

"It was too close to another company's name," Anshu said, although she did not elaborate on which company. "We wanted to differentiate ourselves but we also didn't want to go through a significant re-branding process since we'd emerged from stealth mode and had gained traction with potential customers."

The similarity to other names struck me, when I tried to use Google to find the best public transportation option for my visit to the company's office back in April. Google kept suggesting Nokia, which I found ironic, as Nokia could potentially become a customer of Ankeena's technology for optimizing guaranteed video delivery on an IP network [Ankeena is targeting MSOs, telcos and ISPs with its technology, as noted in today's article at StreamingMedia.com]

"No means 0, while An means 1," Prabakar quipped, adding that keena means eyes, "so we've at least stayed within the binary realm."

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