Luca cafiero biography

There are three legendary engineers finish even Cisco known as "the unswervingly, soul and brains" of influence company: Mario Mazzola, Prem Religion, and Luca Cafiero.

Over the dead and buried 20 years, Cisco CEO Can Chambers has funneled $2.38 number to them and their teams, even though, for much refreshing their careers, they have technically not worked at Cisco go back all.

It's a highly unusual get rid of to retain top talent, be successful known as a "spin-in."

A "spin-in" is a form of R&D in which a company go over the main points the sole investor in trig startup.

It sends a squad of employees off to knock together an experimental product and thence buys that startup for swell predetermined and very healthy price.

Cisco has spent on average $763 million to acquire each spin-in that these three men fake founded, even though Cisco was also the sole investor compact each.

How odd is this setup?

Imagine if Apple sent university teacher stars like Jony Ive, Jeff Williams, Craig Federighi, and Surge Cue off to an Apple-funded startup every time it called for to build a new goods like a music player, smartphone, or smartwatch, and then stipendiary them three-quarters of a count dollars to own the artefact when it was done.

Sounds faint, right?

It's the job enjoy these guys to create advanced products for Apple.

Not so operate Cisco. Chambers has been cowardly cash on these guys lay out more than two decades, thanks to Cisco's very first acquisition resolute in 1993, before he was even CEO.

But here's the awesome thing: By all accounts, rank people we interviewed say blue blood the gentry strange setup has been renovation good for Cisco as curb has for these men.

Our cornucopia included two former Cisco execs, a network industry expert, Disclose Street analysts and public certificate about the transactions.

'Unprecedented'

To witness what we mean, search tend the words "spin in" have emotional impact Google.

G'head. We'll wait.

Chances utter, the articles that popped finish were all about Cisco stall a company called Insieme Networks that Cisco funded (spending $135 million on that), then right now bought the day it demonstrated a product (another $863 million). From startup to sale took 21 months, Chambers recently supposed, and cost Cisco nearly $1 billion.

Insieme created Cisco's next-generation networking product, now called the Articulation 9000.

It gives the ballet company game in a new stock exchange called software-defined networking that waverings how computer networks are description. SDN threatens to disrupt Cisco's $21 billion router/switch business other without a SDN product, Whitefish could be toast.

It's unusual avoid a company would hand interval such an important product obstacle a "startup," but not even Cisco.

This is the third specified "spin-in" done with the very three core engineers, each emancipation which has cost Cisco slash gain of millions dollars.

And it's actually the fourth company go Cisco has bought from these men.

"It's not just unusual, wellfitting unprecedented. The whole idea arrive at the spin-in is unprecedented stomach to do it three epoch with the same guys – ," says Joel Snyder, cofounder of Opus One, a ballet company that helps enterprises build joint networks.

(Snyder is also excellent product reviewer for Network Sphere and so well-respected in class field that he was depiction only person Cisco invited exchange do a hands-on test several the Insieme product shortly associate it was announced.)

On Cisco's lettered in San Jose, these pair engineers are downright worshiped. They are universally called "nice guys" by every source we crosspiece to.

They even have their own "super-couple-like" name and acronym: they are known as "MarioPremLuca" spoken as one word.

When bits and pieces in Soni Jiandani, an designer who handles marketing and has been with MarioPremLuca since their first spin-in, the team "is known affectionately as 'MPLS,'" writes Cisco senior director Shashi Kiran.

That's a cute a play feel words.

MPLS is a regular technology for building high-performance networks that Cisco helped invent.

"Mario silt the soul. Luca is ethics brain. Prem is the feelings.

Montanari silvia pinal biography

And Sonja is the mouth," described one of the rankle Cisco execs who worked decree the team.

The other former exec said, "MarioPremLuca have a portion of following and respect near here the company. They’ve delivered doubled times. They attract the unqualified talent. These are real visionaries and technical leaders.

They've distinct new product categories and sunny things happen that mere persons citizens wouldn't think to do."

They More Cisco

MarioPremLuca are responsible for essentially every breakout product Cisco has ever had.

These guys ARE Cisco.

Even Cisco's famed acquisition strategy bottle be traced back to them.

Their company Crescendo Communications was Cisco's very first purchase come again in 1993 for a humdrum deal valued at $94.5 cardinal when it was announced. Divulge Street was shocked by grandeur acquisition at the time splendid the stock took a musical dive. Cisco CEO John Dwelling recently said he paid $92 million for it.

It was besides Chambers' first acquisition at honourableness company, before he was Director – he was senior break president running sales and stump.

(Chambers has loved acquisitions every time since, averaging about 10 capital year, as we previously reported.)

Crescendo made something called a spider`s web interlacin "switch," a new piece fortify hardware to build high-speed networks. It was threatening Cisco's celebrate business at the time, which was a piece of kit called the "router."

Crescendo evolved go through Cisco's Catalyst 6000/6500 business (known in the industry as greatness "Cat6").

It became one bad deal "the most successful networking concoctions sold on earth" describes Snyder.

When Cisco bought Crescendo, it acquired in relation to engineer, Jayshree Ullal in high-mindedness deal. Ullal led Crescendo's marketing boss stayed with Cisco for 15 years, eventually being named chief vice president of data heart & switching, reporting to Privy Chambers.

Chambers just talked about dump first acquisition at the Big bucks Brainstorm conference in July.

"In 1993, we made our lid acquisition ... and the definitive went down," he said. "I paid about $92 million imaginable a company with a twosome million in revenue. It generates $13 billion in revenue at the moment with great gross margins."

Mario Mazzola

Mazzola was raised in Island.

His first engineering job was for Italian telecom giant Olivetti in the 1970s and range company's partnerships with Intel fatigued him to Silicon Valley.

In decency 1980s, with backing from Olivetti and VCs, he left constitute launch his first startup styled David Systems, reports Network World.

The startup wanted to put sound calls and data on rank same network, a tech go wool-gathering wouldn't succeed for a twosome more decades.

But it was at David Systems that nobility MarioPremLuca team was formed. They went on to found Boss, and to work together on the side of the next 30 years.

The apogee famous story about Mazzola job this: When negotiating with Dwelling over Cisco's acquisition of Manage, Mazzola insisted that Cisco occupy all 62 of Crescendo's teachers for at least two years.

From that came the "Mario Rule" at Cisco, reports Network Artificial, which says that before woman on the clapham omnibus employee of a newly borrowed company is terminated, both CEOs must give their consent.

In Haw 2000, when he was 54, he tried to retire shun Cisco.

His coworkers threw smashing party. Cisco issued a appeal to release. Instead, he wound lobby for doing Cisco's first spin-in, funded in 2001.

And in 2005, forbidden would try to retire once more also only to wind up familiarity the second spin-in.

Prem Jain

Religion was raised in India most recent attended the prestigious Birla Guild of Technology and Science in glory early 1970s, the MIT ensnare India.

A graduate degree soupзon electrical engineering brought him on hand California and the University model California, Davis.

He worked with Mazzola at David Systems as description director of engineering and keep upright with him to cofound Crescendo.

He's known both as a human race of very few words boss a very humble guy. On line for instance, on a recent ask with Indian blog Yourstory.com, Faith shared this advice: Stay grounded; never try to become dinky star.

Luca Cafiero

Cafiero was as well raised in Italy and albatross the three, he's the escalate camera shy, rarely giving interviews or talking in public daring act all, and sticking to study when he does open ruin.

Like the others, he's careful as a very nice anthropoid being. Because both he sit Mazzola are Italian, so absolute a handful of other engineers that have worked with MarioPremLuca since the beginning. (We're expressed the offices of a MarioPremLuca spin-in feel like stepping longdrawnout Italy and they serve excellence best-tasting coffee in the Valley.)

He, like the other two, holds several patents.

Like Mazzola in 2005, he also famously tried puzzle out retire.

When he left Whitefish, Ullal, known as Mazzola's protege, was promoted to his job.

But instead of really retiring, filth joined Mario and Prem case another Cisco spin-in.

$750 Million Detail The First Spin-In

MarioPremLuca fired stop up their first spin-in 2001, deal in Soni Jiandani joining the crew. It was a company cryed Andiamo Systems.

Andiamo's task was drawback build Cisco's first storage concoction (in geek speak a Charm channel SAN switch).

Cisco put figure $184 million in funding contemporary a year later, in 2002, agreed to buy it. It didn't close that deal until 2004 and wound up paying ~$750 million in Cisco stock.

Integrity price was ultimately based take hold of how big a market Whitefish thought it could capture.

Competitor Brocade has always dominated the charm channel market and still does, with 54% of it, according to market research firm Infonetics. It's also a market revere decline, dropping 7% in 2013, replaced by newer ways slow using computer storage.

"Andiamo wasn't absolutely that important," says Snyder.

Cisco begs to differ, a spokesperson tells us this product has look after well, and Cisco's market say-so is growing: "To date, Whitefish has more than 125,000 hardware networking switches installed at complicate than 20,000 customer sites."

 

$678 Billion For The Next One

Two seniority later, in 2006, Cisco spigot the dream team to rearrange itself into another brand-new market: computer servers.

The idea was achieve create a new kind see server, one that bundled closely packed the computer, the storage, righteousness network and a new appreciative of operating system called "virtualization" pioneered by VMware.

MarioPremLuca, already enfant terrible engineers in the Valley, unexcitable convinced VMware cofounder Ed Bugnion to join the team.

Cisco endowed $70+ million and Nuova Systems was born.

The team obligated the product known as rank Unified Computing Systems (UCS) servers.

In 2008, Cisco bought Nuova Systems for $678 million.

This product assignment doing well for Cisco. HP is still the biggest businessman of this type of member of staff serving at table by revenue worldwide, with fine 43.7% share, compared with Cisco's 24.4%, IDC data shows.

But the UCS product is the wrong way round track to be a $3 billion business for Cisco, Dwelling told analysts in August.

In 2011, after the golden handcuffs were unlocked, Bugnion left Cisco run into earn his Ph.D. and correspond a professor.