Second, Arista’s team has the technology chops to build high-bandwidth, low-latency switches that can scale to create massive data center networks. Arista pioneered the spine-leaf, two-tier architecture that is now standard in large data centers. And, over time, it developed a full networking stack of hardware, software, operating system, data lake, visibility, management, automation, AI agent, and security features, such as network detection and response (NDR).
Third, and maybe most importantly, Arista has a well-honed business strategy.
“All of the other vendors were trying to serve everybody,” says Forrester analyst Andre Kindness. They were competing against each other with bloated, feature-laden products aimed at the broadest possible range of customers. Unable to differentiate themselves, they struggled to gain market share and ultimately became acquisition targets.
“What you saw with Arista is, ‘We’re not here to serve everyone, we’re here to develop products for particular markets,’” says Kindness. High-frequency stock traders wanted fast, slimmed down, easily programmable switches, and Arista was happy to fill that need. Then, as the cloud computing market grew, Arista got in on the ground floor, working closely with companies like Microsoft and Meta to develop the networking infrastructure for hyperscale data centers.
“Arista has been laser focused in reaching the right customer segments with the right solutions. They started strong in the financial services sector with their ultra-low latency and high throughput switch solution. Winning business from the hyperscaler segment with their cloud networking solutions placed them more solidly on the map as these pivotal customers drive high volumes of repeatable business,” says Omdia analyst Adeline Phua.
In fact, nearly half of Arista’s revenue comes from what the company refers to as the “cloud titans.”
