Vendor Spotlight: Faddom

Faddom Ltd. provides IT infrastructure mapping and monitoring solutions for hybrid and cloud environments.

The core of the system was based on a package previously marketed by VNT Software. The company focuses on dynamic, real-time visualization to help organizations manage complex IT systems.

Faddom specializes in network and infrastructure mapping and monitoring. It provides solutions that help organizations visualize and manage their IT environments. The Faddom platform is designed to offer clear insights into data center and cloud resources, improving efficiency in asset management and reducing the risks associated with managing complex IT infrastructures.

The change from the VNT Software marque to the Faddom brand in 2019 was so fundamental that the company regards this moment as its foundation point. However, the background of the business goes right back to 2010.

Founding and Background

Faddom Ltd. is an Israeli software company that evolved from VNT Software. VNT was founded in 2010 and it produced network discovery systems. In 2019, the VNT owners brought in three new specialists to work alongside Ofer Regev, VNT’s Chief Technology Officer, to revamp the VNT product into the new Faddom platform. Those newcomers were Lanir Shacham, the new CEO, Aviv Hooker, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), and Omer Robinowitz, given the position of Chief Growth Officer (CGO).

VNT funded the development of Faddom in January 2021 with seed capital from NFX, a Venture Capital firm. NFX made another injection of cash in January 2022, providing a total of $2 million in those two phases. The investor took a seat on the board to supervise this investment, with Gigi Levy-Weiss, Founding Partner at NFX, getting involved as a Director of Faddom.

VNT consolidated the name change to Faddom with a new company, which was created in December 2021. The business went through Series A funding in February 2024, gaining $8 million and raising its total funding to date to $13 million. This round brought in Viola Ventures, represented on the Board by Daniel Cohen.

The previous owners of VNT remained investors in Faddom and some previous leadership of the company, led by Tzivi Appel, former CEO, remained as Directors on the Board.

Timeline and Evolution

1. 2010: VNT Software is started by Tzivi Appel and Yair Safrai, who are the main shareholders in the company. The software development team includes Ofer Regev, who is still with the company today.
2. 2011-2019: VNT Software gains investors but focuses on steady, organic growth, creating and supporting a network discovery package.
3. 2019: VNT takes on a new management team, setting up Lanir Shacham, Aviv Hooker, Oder Regev, and Omer Robinowitz as the leaders of the company.
4. 2020: VNT Software rebranded to Faddom Ltd. to better reflect its broader focus. The company began emphasizing its role in “map-based observability” for cloud migrations, security planning, and application dependency mapping.
5. January 2021: Faddom seeks seed capital for its relaunch, attracting an investment from NFX with a direct involvement from NFX partner Gigi Levy-Weiss
6. December 2021: VNT Software Ltd transfers all of its assets to a new company, Faddom Ltd, confirming the transition to the new brand name.
7. January 2022: Faddom gets a further investment from NFX.
8. 2022-2024: The company adds to its software bundle with application dependency mapping and live traffic tracking for security monitoring.
9. February 2024: The company implements a Series A funding round, gaining investment injections from NFX and Viola Ventures.

Company Ownership

Faddom Ltd. remains a privately-held company. The ownership structure of VNT Software included a number of corporate investors. However, they took a minority stake, with the business’s founders maintaining a majority stake. A number of VNT Software employees also invested in the company, notably, the business’s Chief Technology Officer, Ofer Regev.

When VNT transformed itself into Faddom, all the VNT executives stood back, except Regev. None of the three new company executives have any shareholdings in the company. Most of the shareholders of VNT Software still hold stakes in the company but the proportion of their company ownership has been diluted by the buy-ins of NFX and Viola Ventures.

Key People

Faddom has two phases of existence because its real origin was with VNT software, which was founded in 2010. So, there are, effectively, two sets of key people in the business’s history.

1. Tzivi Appel – Co-Founder & CEO, VNT Software: Tzivi Appel was the original creator of the VNT network discovery platform that formed the basis of the current Faddom system. Appel ran the company until 2019 when Lanir Shacham was brought in to run the company. Appel is still a shareholder and a Director of Faddom.
2. Yair Safrai – Co-Founder & Chairman, VNT Software: Yair Safrai co-founded Faddom and serves as Chairman of the Board. Safrai funded the creation of VNT Software and ran the business while Appel focused on development. As the product stabilized, Appel rose to the CEO position and Safrai’s day-to-day involvement decreased. Safari is an active investor in many Israeli businesses. He is still a shareholder of Faddom and also on the company’s Board of Directors.
3. Ofer Regev – CTO, VNT Software and Faddom: Regev joined VNT Software as a developer at its creation. Working alongside Appel on the creation of the VNT platform, he knows more than anyone how the system works. Regev had 10 years of experience as a software developer before starting at VNT and he has now been with the company in its two forms for 14 years. He rose from the position of Software Engineer to Chief Technology Officer in 2016 and retains that position with Faddom.
4. Lanir Shacham – CEO, Faddom: Shacham first arrived at VNT Software in March 2019 as an advisor. He produced a plan for the company that created the new Faddom identity. Shacham stayed at the company as an advisor until October 2020 when he was given a role as the manager of the transition to the cloud. He took over as CEO in January 2020 once the transformation of software producer VNT into cloud-based Faddom was complete.
5. Aviv Hooker – CRO, Faddom: The role of Chief Revenue Officer is an unusual one – this is a strategic marketing job. Aviv Hooker joined VNT as a Sales Executive in November 2019 and was promoted to the Board in December 2021. He is rated as one of the four founders of Faddom. He is responsible for identifying market needs and interpreting those into new modules for the Faddom platform.
6. Omer Robinowitz – CGO, Faddom. Chief Growth Officer is another uncommon job title. Robinowitz has a broad range of responsibilities that span sales and marketing to customer support. Effectively, he is in charge of finding clients and keeping them happy. He joined VNT in November 2019 when the transformation plan was triggered. His initial role was Head of Business Development. He was promoted to the executive position of CGO in March 2021.
7. Gigi Levy-Weiss – Investor, NFX; Advisor and Director, Faddom: Gigi Levy-Weiss is a Founding Partner of NFX, an Israeli investment house that specializes in incubating technology businesses. He was made aware of VNT Software and was encouraged to finance the company’s transformation into Faddom, based on the promise of Lanir Shacham’s development plan.

Summary

Faddom is a revived business. The company has stayed small in both of its incarnations: VNT Software had only 11 employees for most of its history, and Faddom only had 46 staff members today. The recent injection of $8 million will probably fund a rapid expansion of the Faddom payroll.

Locations

VNT Software had its offices in the Central Israeli town of Netanya. By the time the business registered its new company, Faddom Ltd, it had moved to Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. All the company’s activities are carried out at that address. The business still has a small team that doesn’t require a vast HQ campus to house.

Faddom Target Market and Customer Base

The Faddom system is an evolution of VNT Software, principally by extending its scanning into the cloud. Since establishing the Faddom brand, the executive team has polled its customers and the clients that it would like to gain to identify areas for expansion in the capabilities of the platform. Thus, the target market of the company is rapidly expanding as the product evolves.

Target Market

Faddom primarily targets medium to large enterprises and organizations that operate complex IT environments and require detailed visibility into their network infrastructure. Its solutions are ideal for businesses looking to optimize their IT operations, especially those transitioning to cloud-based environments or adopting hybrid infrastructure. Key industries include financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, government, and telecommunications, where infrastructure management and optimization are critical. Additionally, Faddom appeals to IT departments that need to enhance network visibility and mapping to improve security, reduce costs, and ensure compliance.

Customer Base

Faddom’s customer base comprises businesses and organizations seeking automated tools for IT asset management, network mapping, and cost optimization. These include companies with hybrid IT environments that span on-premises data centers, cloud infrastructure, and third-party services. Faddom’s customers are typically IT operations teams, cloud architects, and network administrators who benefit from its real-time mapping and monitoring capabilities. Its clientele may also include Managed Service Providers (MSPs) that manage IT infrastructure for other companies. Enterprises with complex IT infrastructures that need to improve operational efficiency, enhance network security, and optimize cloud spend form a large portion of Faddom’s user base.

Faddom Product Suite

The core of the Faddom’s product suite includes network mapping, dependency visualization, and cloud migration planning. The system can cross platforms without requiring agents, making it easy to deploy and maintain. Below are the key components of Faddom’s product suite.

1. Network Mapping Faddom automatically discovers and maps IT assets, showing the relationships between them. It creates a visual representation of servers, applications, and other infrastructure components to give organizations complete visibility into their IT environments.
2. Application Dependency Mapping The solution provides detailed application dependency mapping, allowing users to see how different applications and systems interact with each other. This feature is critical during cloud migrations or data center consolidations to ensure that nothing is missed and services continue to run smoothly.
3. Cloud Cost Optimization As organizations increasingly move workloads to the cloud, Faddom helps manage and reduce cloud expenses by offering insights into cloud usage patterns. It provides a detailed analysis of costs and resources to optimize spending.
4. Cloud Migration Planning Faddom assists in planning for cloud migration by giving a clear understanding of on-premise applications, dependencies, and traffic patterns, helping organizations make informed decisions about which workloads can be migrated to the cloud.

Evolution of the Product Suite

Initially, Faddom’s product was focused on providing network visibility and asset discovery within on-premise environments. As cloud computing became more prominent, Faddom evolved its offerings to include cloud infrastructure mapping and hybrid IT environment visibility. This shift allowed businesses using Faddom to gain real-time insights into both their physical and cloud-based assets, bridging the gap between on-premise systems and cloud infrastructure.

The product suite evolved in response to increasing demand for cloud migration support and cost optimization. Faddom introduced enhanced features for application dependency mapping, specifically designed to make cloud migration smoother and more predictable. They also integrated analytics to provide cost optimization insights for companies using cloud services, a feature that has become critical as cloud spend continues to rise.

Challenges and How Faddom Overcame Them

• Adapting to the Cloud Shift Faddom faced the challenge of adapting its network mapping tools to handle the complexity of cloud infrastructures. Faddom interfaced to cloud platform reporting systems, enabling real-time updates without the need for intrusive software installations. This allowed Faddom to manage hybrid IT environments.
• Scaling for Larger Enterprises Handling large amounts of data and real-time traffic from multiple environments placed strains on the Faddom platform. The developers optimized the software to handle greater data volumes and that enhanced scalability, performance, and speed.
• Cloud Cost Transparency With cloud adoption came the challenge of providing transparency into cloud costs, which can be highly variable and difficult to manage. Faddom added cost optimization tools to its suite, giving organizations detailed insights into how they were using cloud resources and how they could reduce costs. This feature helped Faddom stand out from competitors, as it addressed a growing pain point in the cloud adoption journey.

Faddom’s Network Mapping is an automated, real-time view of an entire IT infrastructure, both on-premises and in the cloud. This module gives companies deep insight into their network architecture, including the relationships and dependencies between various systems, applications, and hardware. The agentless nature of the solution makes deployment easier and faster, allowing organizations to visualize their network without installing additional software on endpoints.

Key Features:

• Agentless Discovery: Faddom’s network mapping mines existing system reporting mechanisms to extract live data.
• Real-Time Network Visualization: A live view of all connected systems, devices, applications, and their dependencies.
• Application Dependency Mapping: Visualizes the relationships between different applications and servers, exposing interdependencies within the network.
• Multi-Environment Support: Covers on-premise, cloud, and hybrid IT environments.
• Automated Change Detection: Updates the topology map accordingly when a scan produces different results to the previous report.
• Integration with Cloud Providers: The module integrates with major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Faddom’s Network Mapping module is a powerful tool for organizations that need real-time visibility into their IT infrastructure, both on-premises and in the cloud. Agentless design, multi-environment support, and application dependency mapping make it an excellent choice for businesses looking to optimize their network operations, especially in hybrid IT environments.

Other Notable Products

1. Application Dependency Mapping

Faddom’s Application Dependency Mapping provides real-time, detailed insights into the relationships and interactions between various applications, servers, and IT infrastructure components. It automatically discovers and visualizes these dependencies across both on-premise and cloud environments. This visibility helps identify potential risks, bottlenecks, and performance issues before making changes to the IT landscape. Thus, IT teams can prevent downtime and ensure smoother transitions during migration or updates.

One of the key strengths of Faddom’s Application Dependency Mapping is its ability to operate in real time, ensuring that organizations have an up-to-date view of their network at all times. This feature is particularly useful for hybrid IT environments. While the tool excels in mapping and visualization, it lacks in-depth analytics for application performance, meaning users may need to rely on additional tools for more granular performance monitoring. Nonetheless, Faddom’s dependency mapping greatly simplifies complex IT environments.

2. Cloud Cost Optimization

Faddom’s Cloud Cost Optimization tool helps organizations manage and reduce their cloud infrastructure spending by providing detailed insights into resource usage across multiple cloud platforms. This feature operates in real time, identifying underutilized resources, and supporting informed decisions to eliminate waste. With coverage of AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, Faddom enables companies to right-size their infrastructure for current and future needs. This also prevents overspending and underprovision.

Faddom detects inefficiencies and provides recommendations for cost savings. This includes identifying idle or underused resources, opportunities for consolidation, and over-provisioned services. The tool simplifies the process of adjusting cloud resources to better fit actual workloads, making it easier for IT teams to implement cost-saving measures without compromising performance. Some users may find that it lacks the more advanced cost analysis or predictive analytics found in dedicated FinOps tools.

Major Competitors to Faddom

1. Device42

Device42 is an IT asset management, network discovery, and dependency mapping platform. It provides real-time insights into IT infrastructure through asset discovery, application dependency mapping, and cloud migration planning. It automates asset tracking and improves IT operations by understanding system relationships and dependencies.

2. CloudHealth by VMware

CloudHealth by VMware is a cloud management platform designed to optimize and manage multi-cloud environments. It focuses on cost optimization, governance, and security, enabling organizations to gain control over their cloud infrastructure and associated costs.

3. Turbonomic (by IBM)

Turbonomic, now part of IBM, offers an AI-driven platform that automates resource management across hybrid cloud environments. It focuses on optimizing performance and cost by dynamically adjusting resources based on real-time demand across on-premise, cloud, and virtualized environments.

4. Apptio Cloudability

Apptio Cloudability is a financial operation (FinOps) platform designed to manage and optimize cloud spending. It provides deep visibility into cloud costs, usage, and trends, enabling businesses to maximize cloud efficiency and minimize unnecessary expenses.

5. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

SolarWinds NPM is a network performance monitoring tool designed to provide visibility into the health and performance of on-premise and cloud network infrastructures. It helps IT teams identify, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues quickly.

Conclusion

Faddom’s product suite evolved from basic network mapping to a wider platform that offers comprehensive visibility and control over hybrid IT environments. By addressing key challenges like cloud complexity, scalability, and cost optimization, Faddom successfully adapted its product to meet the needs of modern enterprises transitioning to the cloud. Its continuous innovation in network mapping, application dependency visualization, and cloud management has helped it stay competitive and relevant in a rapidly changing IT landscape.