Arista buys software-defined networking pioneer Pluribus

Arista Networks has acquired Pluribus Networks with an eye toward bolstering its own Unified Cloud Networking service.

There were no details such as cost of the acquisition nor what the deal means for the 140 Pluribus employees most based in Los Altos, Calif.  

Pluribus is a software-defined networking pioneer, founded in 2010 and has morphed its original Netvisor One, a virtualized Linux-based NOS that provides Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking and distributed fabric intelligence into its Adaptive Cloud Fabric software-defined networking package.

Adaptive Cloud Fabric operates without a controller and can be deployed across a data center, service provider or hyperconverged environments. The software gathers network telemetry data from Ethernet switches built on Broadcom’s Trident3 and Trident4 programmable Ethernet-switch chips. Core networking vendors including Cisco, Juniper, Dell, HPE, and others support the chips.

Pluribus’ technology will be folded into a future version of Arista’s Converged Cloud Fabric offering for managing security, automation, smart edge, and telco/cloud applications, Arista stated.

“Pluribus is a great acquisition for its talent and technology and to help us build and bring more capabilities to the Unified Cloud Fabric,” said Jayshree Ullal, president and CEO of Arista Networks who announced the acquisition during the vendor’s Q2 2022 financial analysts call.

Pluribus wrote about the acquisition in more telco-oriented terms citing its strong relationship with European service provider Ericsson.  “Ericsson has been partnering with Pluribus Networks for the unified cloud network fabric of the Ericsson NFVI solution since 2016. Together we have built a telco-grade networking fabric solution used in NFVI deployments. The acquisition of Pluribus by Arista Networks will further the Ericsson partnership with Arista Networks and benefit our joint customers deploying Ericsson’s NFVI solutions through Arista and Ericsson’s combined networking expertise,” said Lars Martensson, Head of Solutions Area Cloud and NFVi at Ericsson AB.

This isn’t the first SDN-oriented acquisition Arista has made.  In 2020 Arista acquired SDN and cloud-software vendor Big Switch Networks for an undisclosed amount. Founded in the same year as Pluribus, Big Switch’s Big Cloud Fabric (BCF) software lets customers manage physical switches as a single fabric that includes security, automation, orchestration and analytics.