Though ADVA's history contains enough subplots to sustain an optical-networking soap opera (including the tale of how its U.S.-born, Stanford-educated leader moved to Germany to start a company), CEO Brian Protiva says the company is focusing on profits, not intrigue, for its future episodes.
"We'll be cash-flow positive soon," says Protiva, whose company lost 4.5 million ($3.8M) in the first quarter of 2001, on sales of 18 million ($15.3M). Protiva says he's comfortable with analysts' predictions of 110-120 million ($93.5-$102M) in sales this year, an increase from approximately 60 million ($51M) in 2000.
Part of the revenue increase is expected to come from ADVA's newest product, the FSP (Fiber Service Platform) 2000 -- targeted at high-end enterprises and service providers that want to provide direct fiber connections to corporate LANs or storage sites. According to Protiva, SAN installations account for more than half the company's current business.
The FSP 2000 promises to support "all protocols between the range of 10 Mbit/s and 10 Gbit/s." It joins the higher-end FSP 3000 and lower-end FSP 1000 units in ADVA's product line.
Though the products target some of the most attractive telecom markets, storage and metro, ADVA has some historical burdens to overcome. Tops is its cash-poor situation, which leaves the company at a disadvantage to its competitors. Though ADVA recently raised 7 million ($5.95M) in follow-on financing from its investors, it's still shortchanged compared to companies like ONI that were able to reap Nasdaq riches.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
