Force10 Plucks Cisco, Juniper Talent
Comment (2)
Another interesting startup believes that the time for optical Ethernet has arrived. Force 10 Networks Inc. is staffing up with an impressive lineup of executives from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR).
This week Force10 announced that John Jendricks has joined as CIO and vice president of business development. Jendricks came from Juniper Networks, where he held the same two titles (see Force10 Hires Juniper, Cisco Execs).
Force10 also announced that Steve Mullaney, formerly of Cisco, has become its new vice president of marketing. Mullaney joined Cisco in March 2000 when Growth Networks, where he was a marketing VP, was acquired.
Only a month ago, Marc Randall, a seven-year Cisco engineer, was lured to Force10 to become vice president of engineering (see Cisco Engineering Exec Joins Force 10).
Force10 still hasn't given many specifics about the gear it's building, other than to say it's creating carrier-class 10-gigabit Ethernet solutions. The company's gear will most likely be used to internetwork in MANs (metropolitan area networks) and WANs (wide area networks), as well as for Web-hosting applications.
An account in Network World some months ago said that Force10's director of product marketing, Nan Chen, gave a presentation at one conference where he said, "T-1 will be replaced with Ethernet," and cited predictions that the market for 10-gig in the WAN will be at $3.6 billion by 2004.
Force10 was founded in May 1999 and has raised more than $70 million in two rounds of funding from New Enterprise Associates, U.S. Venture Partners, and WorldView Technology Partners.
The company could not be reached for comment.
-- Phil Harvey, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com
This week Force10 announced that John Jendricks has joined as CIO and vice president of business development. Jendricks came from Juniper Networks, where he held the same two titles (see Force10 Hires Juniper, Cisco Execs).
Force10 also announced that Steve Mullaney, formerly of Cisco, has become its new vice president of marketing. Mullaney joined Cisco in March 2000 when Growth Networks, where he was a marketing VP, was acquired.
Only a month ago, Marc Randall, a seven-year Cisco engineer, was lured to Force10 to become vice president of engineering (see Cisco Engineering Exec Joins Force 10).
Force10 still hasn't given many specifics about the gear it's building, other than to say it's creating carrier-class 10-gigabit Ethernet solutions. The company's gear will most likely be used to internetwork in MANs (metropolitan area networks) and WANs (wide area networks), as well as for Web-hosting applications.
An account in Network World some months ago said that Force10's director of product marketing, Nan Chen, gave a presentation at one conference where he said, "T-1 will be replaced with Ethernet," and cited predictions that the market for 10-gig in the WAN will be at $3.6 billion by 2004.
Force10 was founded in May 1999 and has raised more than $70 million in two rounds of funding from New Enterprise Associates, U.S. Venture Partners, and WorldView Technology Partners.
The company could not be reached for comment.
-- Phil Harvey, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com
DCITDave
12/4/2012 | 8:56:32 PM
re: Force10 Plucks Cisco, Juniper Talent
Anyone have details on Force10's gear?
HarveyMudd
12/4/2012 | 7:26:05 PM
re: Force10 Plucks Cisco, Juniper Talent
There a lot of companies in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet space for the MAN market. As has been pointed pointed about other readers that the Force 10 box is very poorly designed. There are many well known in this particular space.The company has raised $70 million during the times it was easy to raise capital. It is not clear how much due diligence these companies performed.
No reputable MAN or WAN would buy products from a start-up. The company's product has not been subjected to the OSMINE process.
No amount of hiring from Cisco would help the company sell its products. Cisco was able to sell its products because tremendous growth of the internet industry. The Cisco employee who joined Force 10 has a magical way of selling a weak product.
