b0edf0db_er_Re_Ignite_Battleground_Pt_1__Controller_Strategy
[Company] Arista [ODP Member] Y [Controller Strategy] 
There were rumors that Tom Black was going to Arista to help them build a controller, but Tom has since left and is at HP. The reality so far is that Arista has not built a controller but has focused instead on exposing APIs to programmatic access (eAPI), provided a DirectFlow API for static one-off flow-based rules. Arista also continues to build focused applications for its switches (like tapping and latency analysis). It partners with DevOps-type platforms for automation, including the usual suspects of Puppet and Chef but also Ansible and Stateless Networks. And finally, Arista stays close to VMware by integrating with VMware’s NSX controller, allowing NSX to configure VXLAN and more on its switches.
SDN Controller Wars 2.0: ON.LAB, Juniper Re-Ignite Battleground Pt 1
Controller Strategy