Arista Challenges Cisco on Campus Networks

Arista unveiled the fruits of its Mojo Networks acquisition Tuesday, promising a unified datacenter-to-campus-to-cloud networking architecture that slashes cost and difficulty compared with incumbent Cisco's patchwork approach. The new products and services extend a strategic direction Arista Networks Inc.launched in May, which the company calls "Cognitive Campus." Arista is looking to bring the principles of cloud networking, which the company has implemented in the data center, to the campus. Arista applies a standards-based networking architecture, replacing specialized equipment with equipment based on a single architecture. And where Cisco (and other competitors -- but mainly Cisco) use different operating systems, management stacks and APIs in different parts of the network -- even different standards for WiFi and hardwired campus networks -- Arista applies a unified architecture throughout, Jeff Raymond, Arista VP of EOS product management and services, tells Light Reading. Automation is another big part of Arista's strategy, Raymond says. Overall, the result is drastically reduced operating expenses, faster time to making network changes, improved reliability and performance, and improved security, Raymond says. To extend that strategy, Arista acquired Mojo Networks -- its first acquisition -- in August, and now it's unifying Mojo technology with Arista's existing products and services, the company said Tuesday. Arista is extending its CloudVision network management service to provide visibility into wired and wireless campus networks, as well as introducing Arista Cognitive WiFi, based on Mojo's previously shipping wireless access point, to improve performance, reliability and security for campus WiFi networks.