Cisco Defends Switch Turf
Cisco Systems Inc. watched as a start-up led by two of its former executives grabbed much of the market for high-speed networking gear favored by Wall Street traders. Now the Silicon Valley giant is preparing to fight back.
The target is Arista Networks Inc., a closely held company whose chairman is Andy Bechtolsheim, a celebrated hardware designer known for co-founding Sun Microsystems Inc. and becoming one of Google Inc.’s first investors. Its CEO is Jayshree Ullal, who once ran Cisco’s networking-hardware business.
