Arista Networks has acquired Metamako, which makes low-latency, field programmable gate array (FPGA)-enabled network products. An FPGA is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer after manufacturing, providing a certain level of programmability.

Metamako’s flagship product MetaConnect is a configurable Layer 1 switch with a latency of 4 nanoseconds. Such low latency is nearly undetectable.

Asked if Metamako was a hardware company, Martin Hull, AVP of cloud titans and platform product management with Arista, said, “Clearly, they produce a physical device. So they are a hardware company in that regard, but a lot of their value is in the software loaded onto the FPGA.”

For its part, Arista achieved early success by catering to the financial services market with low-latency cloud networking. The company has since greatly expanded its customer base, selling data center switches for myriad types of customers, including hyperscale cloud providers. But the acquisition of Metamako is targeted to its initial market — financial firms — which crave the lowest latencies.

“It’s with great pleasure that we bring Metamako’s award-winning, ultra-low latency technology to the Arista family of platforms,” said Anshul Sadana, chief customer officer for Arista Networks, in a statement. “The shared philosophy and focus between our two companies will be instrumental in delivering the world’s fastest solutions to our customers in financial services and stock exchanges.”

“Four nanoseconds of latency: that’s the value this brings to financial services companies,” said Hull. “There is a race to zero.”

Metamako launched in 2013. The company is based in Sydney, Australia. In early 2018, it announced Deutsche Börse as a client, with every one of their trades being monitored by Metamako equipment.

Also this year, Metamako acquired xCelor, a Chicago-based firm specializing in low-latency trading applications such as feed handling and bandwidth management.

Arista is not disclosing the terms of the Metamako acquisition. Hull said the “key people” at Metamako will be staying on with Arista. And Arista will continue shipping Matamako products as-is for the time being, probably giving them an Arista name. Over time, the technology may be integrated with other Arista products.

Metamako is Arista’s second acquisition. In August it acquired Mojo, which does cloud-managed WiFi, or what it calls “Cognitive WiFi.”