Broadband Developments

UPDATE FROM SUN:  Sun PR is saying that Andy will remain at SUN as an employee part-time.  The question is can Andy serve both masters?  Is Andy even needed there or is he a figurehead.  I see know problem with him being two places but the reality is he has to focus on one.  There might be more to this story.  I will talk to SUN and find out the story.

The NY Times is reporting that SUN Cofounder Andy Bechtolsheim is leaving SUN to go to his new startup Arista Networks (which has been building a product for 4 years). Who said this is a bad time to do a startup.  While the web 2.0 flops are bunkering down for the winter and trying to figure out what to do, Andy is developing a real business going after a real market.

Infrastructure 2.0 or better said Networking 2.0

Mr. Bechtolsheim’s new company, Arista Networks, has built an ultra-fast network switch that costs one-tenth the price of similar products from Cisco. The hardware, which has already been purchased in small quantities by government labs, universities and Internet start-ups, is aimed squarely at data-oriented organizations like Google that need to wring as much speed as possible from their computing centers.

Hello Cisco.  He has also recruited Cisco’s Jayshree Ullal as chief executive. Ms. Ullal left Cisco in May after leading the company’s $10 billion corporate switch business.  This is a major blow to Cisco.

My favorite line that speaks volumes about how Andy and his team are thinking about the business is…

Mr. Bechtolsheim said the design would let Arista make quick changes to products — even while they were running — and would also open an interface for customers to more easily add their own features.

“My iPhone runs better software than a typical switch,” Mr. Bechtolsheim said. “It is just mind-boggling that the cheapest consumer product has more robust software than what the Internet runs on.”

In addition, Arista packages its equipment in compact cases that allow more connections at a much cheaper price than Cisco’s bulkier machines.

Why I think that this will be a success - look no further than the pioneers of low cost high value networking equipment (based upon open source) - Barracuda Networks.

Barracuda Networks (Dean Drako, Michael Perone, Zach Levow) built a low cost solution that had a huge market.  Although Barracuda was targeting a different segment than Arista their approach and success is a case in point.  Target a market with a need that has money - Arista is certainly doing that.  Andy’s new company if focused on their market and they can build the solution that works then they will win big.

This is a major challenge to Cisco.