Centec

About Centec

Centec, officially Suzhou Centec Communications Co., Ltd., is a semiconductor company established in January 2005 in Suzhou Industrial Park, China. The firm specializes in the design and manufacturing of high-performance Ethernet switching silicon (ASICs) and provides white-box solutions geared towards software-defined networking (SDN). Its business model revolves around manufacturing and selling these core components to equipment makers and service providers for data centers, enterprise networks, and carrier networks.

The company's product portfolio is centered on its proprietary application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which are purpose-built chips that form the core of networking equipment like switches and routers. Centec has developed several generations of these switch chips, designed to facilitate the transition from traditional network architectures (L2, L3, MPLS) to more flexible and scalable SDN environments. In addition to silicon, Centec offers complete hardware and software products. This includes a series of white-box Ethernet switches (E-series and V-series) which are essentially generic, unbranded hardware that customers can customize with their own software. The company also developed its own network operating system, CNOS, which supports the Open Compute Project's Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) and provides a comprehensive set of networking features. This allows clients to build switching systems using different generations of Centec chips without significant redevelopment.

Centec serves a global client base across the carrier, enterprise, and data center markets. Its business strategy involves providing the foundational silicon and open-networking hardware that allows customers to build cost-effective and flexible network infrastructure, capable of handling speeds from 1GE up to 100GE. A significant milestone for the company was securing a $47 million Series E funding round in 2016, led by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (CICF). This capital infusion was aimed at accelerating new product development and expanding sales and marketing operations, with a particular focus on North America. Prior to this, the company had already raised $30 million and demonstrated consistent growth. The company is led by CEO James Sun.