Arista Networks: A Buy For Long-Term Investors

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.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4107967-arista-networks-buy-long-term-investors#ampshare=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4107967-arista-networks-buy-long-term-investors

DriveScale and Dell EMC Expand Partnership to Provide Enterprise Solutions for Data Center Operators

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 7, 2017) - #DriveScale, the leader in #SoftwareComposableInfrastructure ( #SCI ) for modern workloads, today announced that #DellEMC will resell DriveScale's solution to help customers dramatically improve the efficiency and agility of their data center infrastructure for cloud native applications. By offering DriveScale's SCI technology, Dell EMC can help meet the growing demand amongst its customer base for a more flexible architecture to run distributed workloads such as #Hadoop, #Cassandra and other scale-out systems. "Through this strategic partnership, DriveScale and Dell EMC will work toward a common goal of providing the enterprise with efficient and cost-effective infrastructure solutions," said Gene Banman, CEO of DriveScale. "By expanding our reach into the Dell EMC customer base, we are well-positioned to help combat resource over-provisioning in the data center and help new and existing customers scale their businesses. We are proud to partner with world-class technology solution providers like Dell EMC and look forward to creating new opportunities for the channel." Supporting Modern Workloads with Software Composable Infrastructure Modern workloads, such as Hadoop, NoSQL databases and other big data technologies, are dynamic and unpredictable, with data growing exponentially as enterprises find new ways to mine this information for business value. This has resulted in IT administrators struggling to correctly size physical infrastructure for each application or respond to changing workloads that are experiencing a spike in demand. DriveScale's unique SCI solution provides organizations with a next-generation data center architecture that treats hardware infrastructure as code -- delivering significant gains in efficiency and agility while lowering both equipment and operating costs. DriveScale's SCI solution allows data center administrators to disaggregate their infrastructure into separate pools of compute and storage resources, and quickly compose and re-compose them to meet the specific needs of a workload. IT teams can achieve higher utilization levels, reduce over-provisioning and respond much more quickly to changing business requirements. The DriveScale System does not require any changes to an existing application stack and delivers equivalent performance to a bare metal server with internal storage. Expanded Partnership with New Reseller Agreement Extends SCI to Dell EMC Customer Base Earlier this year, DriveScale joined the Dell EMC Tech Connect Program and was certified on Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers, Ethernet Switches and Direct Attached Storage. This new reseller agreement deepens the relationship between the two companies and provides customers with an easier path to manage big data in private and hybrid cloud environments. Recognized as a leader in Software Composable Infrastructure, DriveScale provides Dell EMC partners with a powerful addition to their data center offerings that enables their customers to meet the challenges of today's dynamic workloads. "We chose DriveScale as our solution because its software-defined approach helps us scale our data center quickly and easily while reducing resources trapped in siloed clusters," said Tim Smith, SVP of technical operations at AppNexus. "This expanded relationship between Dell EMC and DriveScale allows for a streamlined technology engagement with an efficient acquisition model." About DriveScale DriveScale is the leader in Software Composable Infrastructure for modern workloads. Our innovative data center solution empowers IT to disaggregate compute and storage resources and quickly and easily recompose them to meet the needs of the business. Enterprises can respond faster to changing application environments, maximize the efficiency of their assets, and save on equipment and operating expenses. DriveScale supports modern workloads such as Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, NoSQL, Cassandra, Docker, Kubernetes and other distributed applications at a fraction of the cost of alternative platforms. DriveScale, based in Sunnyvale, CA, is founded by technologists with deep roots in IT architecture that built enterprise-class systems for Cisco and Sun Microsystems. Investors include Pelion Venture Partners, Nautilus Venture Partners and Ingrasys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foxconn. Visit www.drivescale.com or follow us on Twitter at @DriveScale_Inc.

http://m.marketwired.com/press-release/drivescale-dell-emc-expand-partnership-provide-enterprise-solutions-data-center-operators-2232829.htm