Arista Networks Buys Big Switch

Arista Networks bought SDN vendor Big Switch Networks, according to sources familiar with the deal.The purchase is Arista’s largest acquisition to date, according to a source. It’s also the networking vendor’s third acquisition Arista in 2018 snapped up cloud-managed WiFi firm Mojo Networks and then a month later bought Metamako, a provider of low-latency field programmable gate array (FPGA) products.While Arista ultimately won, Big Switch had a long list of suitors that wanted to bring its technology in house. Several incumbent networking players, including Cisco, Dell Technologies, VMware, Juniper Networks, and Extreme Networks held “multiple meetings” with Big Switch over the past few months, according to a source.Big Switch previously partnered with Dell on its open networking product line, which takes aim at proprietary vendors including Arista and Cisco.