Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Tom Blakey: Yes. Thanks for squeezing me in here. I have a question back on the F&E line financials in enterprise, the drivers that I think maybe Ita was getting at many questions ago. But I was wondering how much like rip-and-replace type of wins are kind of like starting to rear into here this €“ implied, in my mind anyway, an acceleration in the growth in the F&E line. And specifically, the new cloud test product that you launched at the end of last year, if that’s kind of more of a 2023 driver and again, that kind of rip-and-replace type of wins, which is a large opportunity. And enterprise is more of a €˜23 driver or if it’s more €˜24. And then maybe just quick for Ita. As enterprise mix is up, just remind us what the gross margin and operating margin impact should be for mixing more towards enterprise, that would be helpful. Thank you.

Ita Brennan: Maybe I will take that one quickly first. I mean I think the gross margins, we have kind of talked about it, improving as we go through the year, and kind of the mix is obviously part of that. Operating margin is pretty neutral actually between cloud versus the rest. So, I don’t know that there is any big driver there.

Jayshree Ullal: No. We have much lower sales and marketing on the cloud, more technically driven. So, it’s not the same. Going back to your rip-and-replace for financial, I think it F&E means financials and enterprise, just to clarify.

Tom Blakey: Yes. Exactly. I am just talking specifically about the new cloud test product where you can emulate an existing network and then just kind of plug and play the Arista product over an existing install.

Jayshree Ullal: Okay. So, one of the common spreads we are seeing in enterprise and financials is that they want €“ that nobody is getting more staff to do their job. So, they want more tools to automate and bring their SecOps, DevOps, NetOps, all of their operations together. And this is where the Arista introduction of our continuous integration, continuous design and continuous test has really been strategic because not only do you have to give them a tool for automation, but you also have to work with them and train and teach them how to deploy it. So, these end up not necessarily being rip-and-replace, but sort of a gradual evolution where they will identify the first use case of first data center that they will do this on, and then it will expand €“ land and expand to more use cases.

So, most enterprises are not a rip-and-replace, but it’s a use case that we begin with and then gradually evolve to go into a rip-and-replace as their depreciation gets completed on the existing legacy year. So, it’s a multiyear type of deployment, and it usually begins with a couple of use cases.

Tom Blakey: Thank you, Jayshree.

Liz Stine: Thanks Tom.

Jayshree Ullal: Thank you, Tom.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Erik Suppiger with JMP Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Erik Suppiger: Yes. Thanks for fitting me in and Happy Valentine’s. On the Meta front, I am just curious, they have talked about adopting more of a modular kind of scalable architecture. I am wondering if that changes any of the buying behavior on the purchasing patterns. Does that smooth out some of the purchasing from the likes of a Meta? And then secondly, Ita, on the balance sheet with your purchase commitments, do you have control over how much inventory you take on, or as the inventory becomes available, do you get €“ do you take it in, in which case might we see your inventory balloon if more of the inventory becomes available?

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