Ethernet Alliance adds key members, including Cisco

Six weeks after officially forming, the Ethernet Alliance has doubled its membership, adding 16 network vendors to its roster.

The Ethernet Alliance is an industry group that was formed to ensure that Ethernet continues its very successful run. The group would steer Ethernet toward the few networking applications it has not yet dominated.

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, founding members included 3Com, Broadcom, Foundry Networks, Sun and others. Cisco was the most conspicuous absence from the list.

Now Cisco is on board. In fact, it’s actually on the board – the board of directors. Ethernet Alliance President Brad Booth makes a point in the group’s most recent press release to say the group is “especially pleased” to welcome Cisco to the board.

The other new members include Aeluros, Allied Telesis, Beam Express, ClariPhy, Extreme Networks, Fulcrum Microsystems, Gibson Guitar, Infinera, Luxtera, NetEffect, Neterion, Solarflare Communications, Systimax Solutions, Teknovus, and Test-Um.

Gibson Guitar? Yes, the guitar maker has actually taken an innovative approach to using Ethernet, as my colleague Phil Hochmuth recently wrote in his blog.

There are still Ethernet players missing from the group’s roster, but certainly the new additions have gone a long way toward establishing the Ethernet Alliance’s legitimacy. It seems that many vendors believe in the group’s mission – or at least they believe enough in Ethernet itself that membership in the alliance (what could be the last of the Ethernet alliances) could not be passed up.