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Facebook leading webscale network R&D

The webscale sector of network operators spent nearly $1 trillion on R&D in the last decade. A rising portion of that R&D has targeted innovations in how their networks are built and operated. As a group, webscalers invest an average of 10% of revenues into R&D, not far below pure play network-focused vendors like Cisco (12.9%), Ericsson (17.1%), and Nokia (18.7%), who, by design, are in the business of creating products for others to deploy.
For years there has been speculation about whether webscalers would eventually commercialize their innovations and sell them to third parties. In general, this has not happened. The biggest webscalers are rivals in cloud services and other areas, and view their network technology as a key differentiator. They have spent lavishly to build out their R&D teams, and that has produced innovations in multiple areas. The most important ones relate to data center chips, servers, and power/cooling; others involve streaming platforms, network automation, traffic analytics, LEO satellites, IoT operating systems, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving technology, cloud gaming and subsea cable networks. Some webscalers discuss these innovations at conferences, in part to get industry support for furthering their advances. However, while webscalers spend as much as vendors on tech development and have developed loads of IP, most have not functioned as vendors. They keep their secret sauce in house. Amazon’s self-developed network switch is just one of many examples.
There is one partial exception to this rule: Facebook...
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