* Drew Major's company is bought by Cisco
There was a time, maybe 10 to 15 years ago, when the name Drew Major was almost synonymous with NetWare – and vice versa. Back in 1981, Major and three of his BYU classmates (Dale Neibauer, Kyle Powell and Mark Hurst) were contracted (not hired) by Novell Data Systems, Inc., to create a word processor. They never did do that, but they did create NetWare, which gave rise to PC-based local area networks.
Throughout the 90s, Major would almost always give the keynote address on the last day of BrainShare – and it was always a crowd pleaser. For example, when he first demonstrated System Fault Tolerant (SFT) NetWare, Major pulled out a fire axe and chopped the cables between the two paired servers. Another year he gleefully blew up the 20-foot tall effigies representing “Bob and Tina” the supposed mascots of BrainShare.
But the “new” Novell brushed him aside. By the year 2000, he had moved on to found Edgix (joined by former colleagues Powell and Hurst), a company dedicated to speed, speed and more speed in delivering data through caching technologies.
That led directly to another start-up, Arroyo Video Solutions. Arroyo’s emphasis is video-on-demand – streaming video for your computer and on-demand video from your cable supplier. After all, it’s all about speed of delivery, isn’t it?
Someone noticed how well it was working and just last week Cisco agreed to acquire Arroyo for $92 million. As part of the deal, Major will go to work for Cisco. It does make a great match with the venerable networking company’s recent purchase of TV set-top box manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta.
I won’t be at all surprised if, sometime next year, I hear about “set-top box networks” for the home, office or neighborhood. Major likes speed, but his roots are in collaboration. His new employer notices things like that. Maybe his old one should take note.
