While it's true Arista Networks didn't burn down during Andy Bechtolsheim's two stints as CFO, it's probably also in the company's best interests to have more of a seasoned pro doing the job. (Sorry, Andy.)

Buried in the SEC filing accompanying yesterday's first-quarter earnings was the announcement that Arista's new CFO will be Ita Brennan, who will start "on or before May 18." Bechtolsheim, who performed the CFO role on yesterday's earnings call and did not mention Brennan's hiring, will go back to being merely chairman, co-founder, chief development officer, and all-around tech celebrity. (UPDATE: Brennan was indeed mentioned on the earnings call, and Ullal noted the start date of May 18 or later. Sorry for the oversight.)

Brennan was previously CFO at Infinera. She resigned in February to take a job with a tech startup.

Bechtolsheim became interim CFO in April after Kelyn Brannon departed for reasons that haven't been fully explained. Bechtolsheim had also been Arista's founding CFO.

Arista did announce yesterday that it was correcting its balance sheet for the year ending 2014. Some $17.4 million in tax benefits related to Arista's stock-incentive plan were placed in the wrong category; Arista blamed the mistake on weak financial controls but did not relate the issue to the CFO changeover. The issue doesn't affect Arista's reported earnings for 2014.

Photo by Keith Williamson on Flicker. Creative Commons 2.0 license.