Turin, Force10 merger follows Ethernet migration

Turin Networks’ stock-based merger with Force10 Networks combines a vendor of legacy migration equipment with one whose gear represents the ultimate destination of that migration: Ethernet.

Turin’s Traverse family of multiservice transport switches are designed to help carriers transition from legacy time-division technologies such as Sonet and T-1s to carrier Ethernet – in business services as well as wireless backhaul. Force10’s switches, meanwhile, are optimized for high-capacity pure-Ethernet networks such as those associated with large data centers. So the combination of the two companies presents carriers with a legacy-to-pure-IP/Ethernet migration path.

Longer term, Force10’s high-capacity data-center-type products are well-positioned for the future of telecom service provider networks, Turin executives said, as carrier networks evolve to increasingly resemble data-center networks.

“Carrier-based cloud computing and data centers is really where the high end of the Force10 product line fits in,” said Henry Wasik, chief executive officer of both Turin and, if all goes well, the combined company, which will be called Force10 Networks. “We think that becomes an extension of our existing service provider business.”

Notably, the combined company will keep Force10’s name but Turin’s CEO, a reflection perhaps of the future direction of the company as well as the customer base it most hopes to attract.

“If you ask, ‘Where’s the world going?’ ‘Where are networks all heading?’ it tends to be over time, more IP-centric,” Wasik said. “That’s really how Force10 got started.”

In addition, Wasik, who at Turin focused almost exclusively on service provider customers, calls the evolution of service provider networks a “potentially more interesting play over time” than serving enterprise customers.

The combination of Turin’s carrier base with nine-year-old Force10’s enterprise base helps hedge each company against swings in either market. But the two companies are also hoping it will help them grow more geographically diverse as well. While about 95% of Turin’s business today comes from North America, only about 70% of Force10’s business does. About a year after the two combine (they expect to close the merger in March), Wasik said he hopes North America will contribute only 50% of its total revenue.