FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the sections entitled “Business,” “Risk Factors,” “Use of Proceeds,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, as Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “potentially,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “predict,” “expect” and similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the following:
These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.
The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments we may make.
Item 1. Business
We are a leading supplier of cloud networking solutions that use software innovations to address the needs of large-scale Internet companies, cloud service providers and next-generation data centers for enterprises, based on market share. Our cloud networking solutions consist of our Extensible Operating System, or EOS, a set of network applications and our 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet switches. Our cloud networking solutions deliver industry-leading performance, scalability, availability, programmability, automation and visibility. Since we began shipping our products, we have grown rapidly, and, according to Crehan Research, we have achieved the second largest market share in data center 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet switch ports, excluding blade switching, sold in 2014.
At the core of our cloud networking platform is EOS, which was purpose-built to be fully programmable and highly modular. The programmability of EOS has allowed us to create a set of software applications that address the requirements of cloud networking, including workflow automation, network visibility and analytics, and has also allowed us to rapidly integrate with a wide range of third-party applications for virtualization, management, automation, orchestration and network services.
EOS supports leading cloud and virtualization solutions, including VMware NSX, Microsoft System Center, OpenStack and other cloud management frameworks. We have worked with industry leaders to define new open protocols for the virtualized data center. We co-authored the VXLAN protocol specification with VMware and were the first to demonstrate VXLAN integration. We also co-authored the NVGRE protocol specification with Microsoft and support integration with Microsoft’s System Center.
We use standard Linux as our underlying operating system, providing customers with access to all Linux operating system facilities. This allows customers to extend our EOS software with off-the-shelf Linux applications and a growing number of open source management tools.
EOS has a highly modular architecture, which allows us to prevent network outages in deployments of our cloud networking solutions. This architecture also allows us to rapidly develop new features and protocols without compromising the quality of the existing code base. Because all of our switching products are powered by the same binary image of EOS, we are able to deliver these new innovations to our entire installed base with minimal disruption.