To be honest, #AristaNetworks (NYSE:ANET) is by far the most interesting company I ever analyzed. With a short history as a public company, ANET started trading on NYSE just about three years ago, on March 31, 2014. Since then the company offered an amazing financial result backed by a solid value proposition, a fascinating product line and even better growth opportunity for near future and long term. Arista Networks is focused on a single line of business and to be exact a very narrow type of product - ultra-high-speed Ethernet switches used in data centers providing cloud networking services. So, how can a small company with such a short lifetime compete with giants like #Cisco (CSCO), #EMC or #HewlettPackardEnterprise ( #HPE )? Probably the most distinguishing aspect of this company is its leadership team. Two founders, Andy Bechtolsheim and David Cheriton, founded Arista Networks in 2004.  (Andy Bechtolsheim, Source: Arista Networks website) Andy is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems was a well-established IT company focused on networking products which had been acquired by Oracle in 2010. Some of the most influential products in information technology industry have their origins in Sun Microsystems; Linux, Java, Risk Processors, Network File System and … On the other hand, David is co-founder of several companies including Granite Systems which developed gigabit Ethernet and had been acquired by Cisco systems. Bechtolsheim and Cheriton were the two first investors in Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and the leaders behind the Cisco Catalyst product line. Cisco had been the solo industry leader in this sector for a long time, of course before Arista Networks. Arista Networks is currently led by Jayshree Ullal. She was appointed as CEO in 2008 by co-founders and led the IPO in 2014. She also worked in Cisco since 1993, serving as senior manager overseeing different businesses related to networking products.  (Jayshree Ullal, Source: Arista Networks website) It worth noting that officers and directors own a significant portion of the company, in total they own 28.09% based on 2017 proxy statement. Why Arista Networks is different? Arista provides two distinctive products in high-speed networking market: Series 7000 switches: This line of product has a higher efficiency compared to its competitors and at the same time offers significantly high cost savings. Based on company reports, total cost of ownership for a 100GbE port from Arista Networks is just about $3,000 compared to $100,000 in competing products. EOS (Extensible Operating Systems): Arista developed a customized Linux operating system to be used in high speed ethernet switches which is device independent. That means a user may buy any type of product, install EOS and benefit from the efficiency of ANET. Before development of EOS, users where bonded to the solution that each vendor provide. It’s similar to the concept of a general operating system to be installed on the PC, when Microsoft introduced its legendary MS DOS operating system.
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