Arista Networks

Alvin and I went to Arista Network's information session at the Gates building this evening. We were there to see what the next company from David Cheriton and Andy Bechtolsheim is like. It was a nearly pure-technical talk by Kenneth Duda, the VP in Software Engineering with a dazzling biography.

The company focuses on building network switches optimized for cloud computing in data centers. Right now, the situation is not good for innovators and companies who want to build services with their own cloud computing platform - they have to build the platform themselves. Ordinary data center equipment are tailor made for classical applications, such as massive databases. The rise of cloud computing has sparked the need for computing platforms in data centers. While one could use platforms like Google's App Engine and Amazon EC2, it may be desirable to have your own customized, potentially large, platform. But the problem is that it's too costly to make it scalable and reliable. Arista Networks come into play here by providing a network switch with a reliable OS architecture, low power consumption and small form factor.

Arista's Extensible Operating System (EOS) modularize the otherwise tight-bound network protocols in traditional switches. You could have SNMP running in a process, while the client interface and OSPF run in their separate threads. A central location called the sysdb stores the switch's state. Any changes to the state will be first reported to sysdb, which then forward the message to related modules. For instance, a link-down event could be propagated to the client interface, SNMP, spanning tree and routing modules. There is no complex inter-protocol communication, which is the root of many of the flexibility and reliability issues in today's switches.

With 45 software engineers and 25 hardware engineers, the company has managed to churn out several products already within 4 years of establishment. It shows how great a small but powerful team can perform. I hope our small team at Think Bulbs could also make spectacular products in the applications arena.