Exceptional

Profile: Arista Networks
“By 2016, half of all
networking will go
through the cloud.”
“The particular software approach we were taking
was going to take time, and venture capitalists don’t
have a lot of patience for product development,”
Bechtolsheim says. This approach allowed him “to go
slow and build the right underpinning for the product.”
This self-imposed incubation period enabled
Bechtolsheim and his team to perfect Arista’s software
architecture so the company would be ready to take
off once they officially launched their product. Arista
achieved profitable growth within two years of its
product release — a significant milestone for an
early-stage technology company.
A growing network
2004 — Andreas Bechtolsheim and
David Cheriton — both of whom had
previously been executives at Cisco
Systems — found Arastra, named after
its location on Arastradero Road in
Palo Alto, California.
2008 — The company name is changed
to Arista Networks. (“Arista” is a Greek
word meaning “the best.”)
2008 — Arista launches its Extensible
Operating System, which is still at the
heart of its product offering.
2008 — Jayshree Ullal joins from Cisco
and is appointed CEO.
2014 — Arista is listed on the New York
Stock Exchange, raising US$226m from
its IPO.
2015 — Bechtolsheim and Ullal win
the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year TM
had a definite trust factor US Overall Award.
and a strong working
relationship. There was
never any question in my
mind that she was the
best choice,” he says.
Both Bechtolsheim and Ullal realized that preserving
and strengthening Arista’s culture would be critical
to sustaining its growth. Ullal, who had seen many
companies hit a wall as they lost the cultural traits
and attributes that fueled their growth, was especially
concerned that Arista retain its entrepreneurial spirit.
“We had to go from a start-up phase to a customer
phase while still maintaining and preserving what we all
strongly believed were our key attributes,”
The inflection point
Bechtolsheim also knew this was the right time to
hire someone to lead the company. “This was a key
inflection point,” he says. “We had to move on from
being an engineering and product development
company and become a real operation. That is
not my cup of tea. We needed someone who
understood this market.”
Bechtolsheim knew that Ullal would fit the bill. They
had previously worked together at another company he
had founded, Granite Systems, which was later bought
by Cisco. “We knew each other extremely well, so we
Arista’s hardware lab
is state-of-the-art.
Photography Courtesy of Arista Networks
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