SDN player is said to have landed its first major deal with a Tier 1 service provider.

Iain Morris, International Editor

June 26, 2015

3 Min Read
Arista Scoops $50M AT&T Contract – Analyst

Arista may have landed a $50 million contract with AT&T covering data center switches and hardware, according to an analyst at MKM Partners citing "industry checks."

Such a contract would represent Arista Networks Inc. 's first major deal with a Tier 1 service provider, according to MKM's Michael Genovese, and be hugely significant for the SDN player, which has previously catered mainly to smaller operators, as well as Web 2.0 and hosting providers.

"Tier 1s like AT&T are spending a greater portion of capex on data centers," said Genovese in a research note sent earlier today. "That Arista may have secured its first deal in the Tier 1 market is clearly positive if true (we think it is)."

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said it did not comment on vendor contracts when contacted for this story, while Arista emailed Light Reading a statement that similarly stated: "Arista cannot comment on whether AT&T is a customer, let alone contract rumors."

Nevertheless, Arista would likely have faced competition from some vendor heavyweights for the AT&T business, including the likes of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD).

All three of those companies are currently involved in AT&T's Domain 2.0 initiative, a cloud program that leans heavily on the use of SDN and NFV technologies and has been linked to a planned reduction in capital expenditure by AT&T. (See AT&T Adds Brocade, Ciena, Cisco to Its SDN, NFV Program.)

Arista, by contrast, is not one of the ten vendors that AT&T has previously named as Domain 2.0 suppliers. While this contract -- if confirmed -- appears not to be directly connected with that initiative, it is clearly very strongly related and could open up further opportunities for Arista with AT&T in future.

It would also suggest that players such as AT&T are not yet ready to take the plunge into "white boxes" -- switches that use low-cost commodity components to run open-source software.

White box developers clearly pose a threat to established vendors, but Arista has been insisting its software capabilities will give it a big advantage over these emerging rivals. "Anybody can build a box, but not everyone can build software," said Jayshree Ullal, Arista's president and CEO, during a recent earnings call. (See Arista Addresses White Box Threat.)

Want to know more about the emerging SDN market? Check out our dedicated SDN content channel here on Light Reading.

Genovese is clearly impressed with Arista, noting that partnerships it has recently formed with larger IT vendors could support sales growth in the enterprise market.

In the last few weeks, Arista has announced tie-ups with HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), Dell Technologies (Nasdaq: DELL) and Super Micro Computer Inc. that will combine compute-and-storage technology from those players with Arista's networking expertise.

The analyst also thinks the company's launch this week of a major new software product in the enterprise market could have a similarly positive impact on its fortunes.

Branded CloudVision, that product is an automation platform designed to improve network management and could hold particular appeal in the "general enterprise vertical," according to MKM Partners. (See Arista Launches Network-Wide Cloud Automation.)

Genovese has raised his 12-month price target for Arista from $80 to $95 per share due to his growing confidence in its prospects.

Arista is currently priced at $85.33 on the New York Stock Exchange, having seen its share price rise by 24.6% since the beginning of the year.

— Iain Morris, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, News Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Iain Morris

International Editor, Light Reading

Iain Morris joined Light Reading as News Editor at the start of 2015 -- and we mean, right at the start. His friends and family were still singing Auld Lang Syne as Iain started sourcing New Year's Eve UK mobile network congestion statistics. Prior to boosting Light Reading's UK-based editorial team numbers (he is based in London, south of the river), Iain was a successful freelance writer and editor who had been covering the telecoms sector for the past 15 years. His work has appeared in publications including The Economist (classy!) and The Observer, besides a variety of trade and business journals. He was previously the lead telecoms analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, and before that worked as a features editor at Telecommunications magazine. Iain started out in telecoms as an editor at consulting and market-research company Analysys (now Analysys Mason).

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like