Scaling artificial intelligence is not just a compute problem but increasingly a network issue, a reality that Arista Networks addressed Wednesday by unveiling its latest switch family targeted toward AI data centers. It’s new generation, the R4 Series platform is based on the Broadcom Jericho3 Qumran3D silicon and is designed for AI, cloud data centers and routed backbone deployments.
Arista Networks Inc. today announced it will acquire VeloCloud SD-WAN from Broadcom Inc., a deal that puts to bed ongoing reports that surfaced about six weeks ago. The purchase, for which a price wasn’t given but was reportedly about $1 billion, gives Arista a best-in-class software-defined wide-area network solution to complement its current high-end 7000 series router which run the Cloud EOS operating system. VeloCloud has a wide range of cloud-managed SD-WAN offerings with integrated security enabling Arista to reach another tier of customer.
Artificial intelligence continues to be a focal point for companies in all areas of technology and communications as demand from enterprise customers continues to soar, but one of the underappreciated aspects of AI is that a network plays a critical role in the success of AI initiatives. Despite the same type of “AI bump” the capital markets have given the chip companies; the network vendors have been aggressive with evolving their products to meet the demands of AI.
Since it was founded in 2004, Arista Networks Inc. has been known as a company that makes great network switches. This has been done with great hardware and a single, open operating system that spans all its products. In 2015, the company launched “CloudVision,” which moved the management, orchestration, and automation capabilities into the cloud.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Arista Networks Inc. as a publicly traded company, and to celebrate, the company held a special event at the New York Stock Exchange, which is not only the exchange that trades ANET stock but also one of the early Arista customers. However, the shindig at the NYSE wasn’t the only way the company marked the IPOiversary. Arista also announced some artificial intelligence-related news.