Customer Update on Coronavirus (2-April-2020)
Arista is providing this update to address customer questions regarding the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Since our last customer update on March 13, 2020, the pandemic is impacting all countries where Arista and our customers operate. Arista has responded with additional measures to continue to provide you service under these extraordinary conditions.
Critical Infrastructure
Arista Cloud Networking products, services and support are essential to the continued operation of critical infrastructure connecting people and businesses at a time when global communities are driven to physical isolation in an effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. We are committed to overcoming the challenges presented by this global pandemic to support the continued operation of your networks and their ability to handle increasing demand.
The health of our employees is key to supporting your networks. Arista has asked all employees globally to work from home with limited exceptions. We have provided essential workers access to our facilities as may be permitted under applicable local laws after instituting additional health and safety measures to reduce their risk from COVID-19.
As people around the globe become increasingly affected by this pandemic, the risk of supply chain disruptions also increases as labor shortages and logistic challenges emerge. Arista has taken measures intended to reduce that risk by leveraging our multiple locations and multiple supplier capability more dramatically and by authorizing an increase in inventory levels.
Given the increased risk of quarantines and logistic disruptions, we have extended lead-times across our product line. However, we have implemented a business continuity expedite process for special or emergency need orders for specific products if alternate readily available options do not suffice. Updated lead-time information by product will be available to our sales teams for your consideration.
Status of our service depots for RMA replacements can be found at
https://www.arista.com/en/support/customer-support.
You can be assured that we are working proactively to minimize any disruptions and will be responsive to your needs.
The balance of this document describes these measures in more detail.
Employees
As a result of the developing circumstances and new government orders, Arista closed all offices worldwide o n March 24, with limited exceptions for essential employees in certain locations. Arista has taken steps to prepare all employees to work remotely for extended periods.
A significantly reduced set of essential employees will be permitted to work on-site consistent with regulatory requirements in those jurisdictions. These employees will support our on-going operations that are working remotely and will engage in customer support efforts that require access to equipment and facilities.
Additional health and safety measures have been put in place to allow for social distancing and for protection of the limited set of employees that require on-site access.
Service Delivery
With the risk of disruption becoming increasingly distributed geographically, Arista has reviewed service logistics operations for spare parts and RMAs. Additional contingency plans have been put in place to mitigate the impact from local quarantines or closures. This includes the use of the closest alternate locations where possible. In addition, service stocking levels are being increased in locations viewed as at higher risk of import disruption. To date, we have successfully navigated localized logistic disruptions in parts of Europe and areas within the Middle East with shipments from alternate sites. Our team is working hard to stay ahead of disruptions in high impact areas and will continue to focus on reducing risk of service disruption. We will update the status of our service depots on Arista’s web-site.
Supply Chain
Arista products are manufactured at sites in North America and Southeast Asia. Both sites are in operation and have taken proactive measures to monitor the health of employees and to restrict visitors. Measures to increase workplace hygiene and provide social distancing have been put in place. Both sites are operating under government restrictions that limit non-essential employee access. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully as governmental actions in response to the virus remain fluid and subject to change.
Arista maintains four direct fulfilment locations world-wide that deliver finished goods to customers and partners. Similar to our manufacturing sites, the four direct fulfillment centers continue to operate with varying degrees of government restriction for access. We will continue to closely monitor government actions with a potential to impact these operations.
Arista’s supply chain is dependent upon moving finished goods from manufacturing sites to our direct fulfilment locations. We utilize not only ocean shipment but air freight and truck shipments. We have and will continue to leverage this flexibility when logistics is impacted. Reduced freight capacity resulting from the significant cancellation of commercial flights has led us to use alternate carrier options to continue product delivery when required.