Wellfleet Communications

Infobox Company
company_name = Wellfleet Communications Inc.
company_type = Defunct
foundation = 1986
location = Billerica, Massachusetts, US
key_people = CEO Paul Severino
industry = Computer networking

Wellfleet Communications was an Internet router company founded in 1986 by Paul Severino, Bill Seifert, Steven Willis and David Rowe based in Bedford, and later Billerica, Massachusetts. In an attempt to more effectively compete with Cisco Systems, its chief rival, it merged in October, 1994 with SynOptics Communications of Santa Clara, California to form Bay Networks in a deal worth $1.2B. Bay Networks was in turn acquired in June, 1998 by Nortel for $9.1B.

Wellfleet was ranked the fastest-growing company in the United States by Fortune Magazine in both 1992 and 1993, the first company to achieve that feat.

Wellfleet offered a complete range of routers, running from small office units up to their Backbone Communication Node for major enterprises or wide area networks. Their routing software and hardware architectures were generally considered somewhat faster and thus higher-performance than Cisco's by the early 1990s. While Cisco and Proteon Systems had multiprotocol routers, Wellfleet was the first to combine multiprotocol routing with bridging. Wellfleet offered the first router with an integrated T1 CSU/DSU with channelized support for voice and data.

Wellfleet also placed more emphasis on support of the up-and-coming Internet Protocol. However, in the era of multiple Layer 3 protocols (such as Apple Computer's AppleTalk, Novell Network's IPX, Digital Equipment Corporation's DECnet Routing Protocol, the IBM Systems Network Architecture (SNA) protocol and many others) prior to the dominance of IP, Cisco had developed a strong degree of multiple protocol support due to their headstart in the marketplace. This advantage enabled Cisco's routers to handle diverse enterprise needs and effectively prevented Wellfleet from gaining sufficient traction to overtake Cisco's dominant position in the Layer 3 router marketplace. At their pinnacle, Wellfleet had about 15-20% of the router market.

Seeking a way to continue to grow the company, Wellfleet had engaged with SynOptics to develop a router "blade" that was embedded within the SynOptics LattisNet Hub. At approximately the same time, Cisco partnered with Cabletron Systems to develop a similar routing engine for the MMAC-8 Hub. It appeared at the time that there was a strong market demand for these integrated products, which led Wellfleet to the conclusion that a way to gain a strategic advantage over Cisco would be to merge with SynOptics and thus develop highly integrated hardware and management software. Conceptually, the resulting products could be used by worldwide enterprises, allowing them to deploy a single vendor's hardware from end to end across their network and manage the network with a single vendor's management software.

The resulting merged company, Bay Networks (named as such because Wellfleet was based in Boston, Massachusetts and SynOptics in San Francisco, California, two classic bay cities) largely executed on this strategy, as evidenced by the price it fetched at acquisition by Nortel. However, as strong as this strategy was, Cisco ultimately ended up dominating the enterprise market as well as the increasingly important carrier marketplace and to this day continues to be the leading vendor in Layer 3 routing.

Notable Alumni

Bill Seifert founded Agile Networks (Acquired by Lucent Technologies).

Steve Willis and Mike Grady founded Argon Networks (Acquired by Siemens).

Lou Piazza founded Gotham Networks.

Asher Waldfogel founded Redback Networks.

Mick Scully founded Appian Networks.

Peter Wexler led engineering at Juniper Networks.