Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is on a roll lately and after a threat to Snapchat with its Slingshot that targets Snapchat’s revenue, the social networking Ace is now launching a networking weapon on probably bigger players like Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) and Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR). These companies are ruling the market of data networking and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) has even moved ahead a step into cloud with its UCS equipment. Stock price of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) has falled down by over 5% after the announcement by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
The big question is whether Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) can really threaten these networking giants. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) and Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) have a proven history in the field of networking and their switches are currently being used by almost all of the top companies somewhere in the network. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is probably the oldest player in this market and its currently placed in the leaders category in Gartner’s Quadrant for LAN and wireless.
Though Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s might look like threatening at this moment, the actual effect would only be seen when the product is launched. The market for core switching is estimated to be around $23 billion and it’s dominated by Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), while Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) is a key player in the LAN switching market.Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) has been trying to make its mark in the industry for some time and has succeeded to an extent. However one thing is for sure these companies like Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) have lost one major customer already with the Wedge coming into picture.
The new device Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has built is actually based on a new technology which would be a software based and with this even application developers can work on a network device and this device is a part of the company’s OCP (Open Compute Project). Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is not the first company that had tried to do something new and innovative in the field of networking. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been trying to master a network switch for some years now. There have been few other start-ups that tried to take on the masters in the industry like Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN) and Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR). Facebook’s new switch would be running on a code which is called as FBOSS. The switch has ports that can transfer data at a speed of 40 Gigabits per Second which is equal to the best available speed today in the industry.
Though Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is confident that this would be the next big thing in networking industry, the actual performance in the Data center would be proved only after the launch. It might be too early to say anything on the new technology.
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