Siara Systems

Siara Systems emerged in 1998, founded by the duo Siegfried Luft and Vivek Ragavan, who served as CTO and CEO respectively. The company was established in Mountain View, California, during the dot-com boom, with a focus on developing advanced optical networking solutions. It was strategically spun off from Cerent Corporation, another successful venture in the optical networking space, indicating a lineage of expertise in the sector. Key figures with a history of success, including several founders from Cerent, joined Siara, bringing valuable experience to the new enterprise. The venture was notably backed by prominent investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Norwest Venture Partners, and Presidio Ventures, who provided crucial early-stage and later-stage funding totaling over $13.5 million across several rounds.

Siara Systems operated in the telecommunications equipment market, specifically targeting service providers with its connectivity products. The firm's core business was the development of multi-service platforms for next-generation access networks. These platforms were designed to provide IP over synchronous optical network solutions, enabling telecommunications companies to manage internet services remotely. Their technological expertise encompassed dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), packet-over-Sonet technologies, and photonic transport. The primary clients for these solutions were major telecommunications operators and service providers looking to enhance their network infrastructure to handle the explosive growth of internet traffic.

The company's product line, though largely in the prototype and development stage during its existence, was centered on hardware and software for high-speed internet service over fiber-optic lines. These solutions aimed to empower network operators to deliver faster and more reliable internet access by leveraging cutting-edge optical transport technologies. The significance of Siara's engineering talent, a team of nearly 170 engineers, was a major asset, attracting the attention of larger players in the industry. In a landmark deal in November 1999, before generating any revenue or officially launching a product, Siara Systems was acquired by Redback Networks for approximately $4.3 billion in stock. This acquisition highlighted the immense value placed on Siara's intellectual property and its team's potential to shape the future of internet infrastructure.

Keywords: optical networking, telecommunications equipment, service providers, fiber-optic, network infrastructure, DWDM, packet-over-Sonet, IP over SONET, Redback Networks acquisition, Kleiner Perkins, Vivek Ragavan, Siegfried Luft, Cerent spin-off, high-speed Internet, access networks, photonic transport, network management software, connectivity products, Silicon Valley, dot-com boom