Arista Networks posted robust growth during the first quarter of 2021, despite an ongoing semiconductor shortage that has pushed the networking vendor's component lead times out to a year. Revenues surged 27.6% year over year to $667.6 million in Q1, while net income grew by a similar margin to $180 million.

CEO Jayshree Ullal touted strong growth among “cloud titans” — how Arista refers to major cloud providers — which was the company’s largest vertical during the quarter, followed by enterprise, financial services, specialty cloud providers, and service providers.

“We are pleased with the healthy demand we are experiencing and Arista is resonating well with customers and prospects as they are driving our multi-year growth projections,” Ullal said.

She also highlighted the growing demand for 400 Gb/s-capable optics, especially among cloud providers. “We are pleased to also state that we now see increased visibility across… 100 Gb/s, 200 Gb/s, and 400 Gb/s demand from our cloud titan customers,” she said.

Arista COO Anshul Sadana expects the 400 GB/s upgrade cycle to begin in earnest in the second half of the year driven in part by the availability of 400ZR pluggable optics.

The company’s growth was overshadowed by the looming semiconductor shortage, which is now expected to last through 2023.

“The supply chain has never been so constrained in Arista history,” Ullal said. “We now have to plan for many components with 52-week lead times.”

This, she explained, is the result of significant substrate and wafer shortages alongside reduced assembly capacity. “Our contract manufacturers have experienced significant volatility due to country specific COVID orders,” she added.

Moving forward, Ullal anticipates the semiconductor shortage to have a lasting impact on the company’s lead times through the rest of the year but assured investors that Arista is taking steps to invest and increase inventory and manufacturing capacity.

Arista’s earnings during the quarter were swayed heavily toward the Americas due to strong geographic demand from cloud providers, Arista CFO Ita Brennan said. International sales contributed 25% of revenues while Americas represented the other 75% of overall revenues.

Supply constraints due to ongoing COVID-19 related challenges and a semiconductor shortages likely impacted those results, Brennan explained, adding that Arista plans to introduce several new products in the second quarter of 2021.

However, because in-person testing is still running at diminished levels, the company said it expects its quarterly growth rates to decline on a percentage basis. Arista expects revenues in the range of $675 million to $695 million in Q2.

Editors note: The original version of this story misstated Arista’s product lead times.