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Arista Revolutionizing Ethernet Connectivity

Based in Menlo Park, California, Arista is a privately owned company that delivers Cloud Networking systems for big data processing centers and other computing environments. The company manufactures Ethernet switches which can process up to ten gigabytes of data. Furthermore, Arista also operates on the EOS or Extended Operation System, which is a unique software architecture that can “fix itself” whenever there is a glitch in the system by having live in-service upgrade capabilities.

Arista provides both products and services. Some of these products include the Arista 7100 Series Ethernet Switches. These are high-density switches which can process up to 10 GB of data and these switches can be deployed anywhere in the data center. This ability can greatly improve server performance and therefore improve the data center’s efficiency.

Arista also manufactures 10GB Pass-Through Cards for the IBM BladeCenter H, which can accommodate the increasing request for larger bandwidths and also operates in an efficient manner, reducing the cost of server ownership. This card is basically designed for simplicity and does not require configuration when installed. This makes for a user-friendly product, more likely to sell in this competitive market. Arista also manufactures SFPs or Small Form Factor Pluggables and cables which can carry data with a bandwidth up to 10 GB.

The service that Arista provides is the EOS, which can provide highly robust and dependable data center communication services, as well as providing security and stability. Some of the software applications that Arista provides are Arista A Care Service Offerings, which are designed to provide the user a support service whenever he needs it; A Care Software, which is a program that provides the user access to Arista’s TAC engineers who can resolve problems in a prompt fashion.

Arista was founded by David Cheriton, who also works at the company as the chief scientist, and Ken Duda, who also works at Arista as the company’s vice president of software engineering.

Apart from being one of Arista’s cofounders and working as the company’s chief scientist, Prof. Cheriton is also a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, and is known worldwide as a researcher in the field of distributed systems and networking. Prof. Cheriton is also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the prestigious ACM Sigcom Professional Group in 2003. Prof. Cheriton founded other companies, including Granite Systems, which was later acquired by Cisco Systems in 1996. Prof. Cheriton graduated from the University of Waterloo with a PhD in Computer Science in 1978 and has been a professor at Stanford University since 1981.

Along with being the second cofounder of Arista, Mr. Duda is also the company’s chief scientist and is the man behind the development of Arista’s Network EOS. Mr. Duda also served as the company’s acting president from 2005 to 2008. Earlier, Mr. Duda was the CTO for There.com and designed the real-time 3D distributed system that is scaled down to size for use for a large number of simultaneous users on a given network for There.com. Mr. Duda also was the first person hired at Granite Systems where he led the development of the Catalyst 4000 product line after Granite System was acquired by Cisco Systems. Ken Duda graduated from MIT with three degrees in Simultaneous Engineering and then went on to Stanford University, where he received his PhD in Computer Science.

Other key people on Arista’s management team include Jayshree Ullal, the company’s president and CEO, and Andy Bechtolsheim, who is the company’s CDO and chairman and also participated in Arista’s foundation.

Jayshree Ullal has over 25 years of experience in working as a networking executive and in 2005, she made Network World’s list of the 50 most powerful people. Before coming to Arista, Ms. Ullal worked at Cisco Systems, where she held the position of Senior Vice President and was responsible for raising over $10 billion in annual revenue from Cisco’s data center and switches, including Nexus 7000 and Catalyst 4500 and 6500 product lines. Ms. Ullal graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BS in Electrical Engineering and then went on to Santa Clara University, where she received her MS Engineering Management.

Being the chief development officer of Arista, Mr. Bechtolscheim oversees the company’s product development. Mr. Bechtolscheim also contributed to the founding of Arista together with Prof. David Cheriton and Ken Duda. Before joining the Arista team, Mr. Bechtoscheim founded Sun Microsystems and was also a cofounder of Granite Systems, where he held the position of company president. Mr. Bechtolscheim also founded Kaelia, which was later acquired by Sun Microsystems and also served as the president there. Mr. Bechtolscheim graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1976 with an MS in Computer Engineering and then went on to study at Stanford University from 1977 to 1982.

In 2007, Arista launched its first 10 GB data center and Ethernet switches, which were to revolutionize the efficiency of the internet and allow for larger bandwidth flows from servers with Arista’s technology.

On May 20, 2008; Arista announced that it had just launched its Channel Partner Program in Grapevine, Texas. This program is targeted to resellers and system integrators who work together with Arista and help develop the company’s system.

Arista has one major competitor, Extreme Networks. This is a company that has a similar, if not the same product that Arista has. Extreme Networks has 10 people on its board of directors and is a global company which believes in innovation of networking technology.

For more information on Arista, click here.

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