Arista Networks, Inc. 2016 Annual Report

Dear Arista Networks Stockholders:

I am pleased to report that 2016 represented another highly successful year for Arista Networks. We are extremelyproud of the company’s financial performance, technological innovations and operational excellence that we have achieved over the last year as we continue to extend our technological leadership in high speed data center and cloud networking.

For 2016, our revenue grew to $1.1 billion, a 34.8% increase from the prior year. This represents an historic milestone for us as we exceeded one billion dollars in annual sales within two years of becoming a public company. Revenue growth wasdriven by strong adoption of our innovative cloud-class, cloud-scale and cloud-converged offerings, differentiated by Arista EOS® state-based orchestration with CloudVision®. With now over 4,200 customers and cumulative of ten million ports, we have expanded our market footprint. We continue to grow our employee strength to over 1,500 with worldwide investmentsacross 80 countries.

We were recognized for the second consecutive year as a leader in Gartner’s 2016 Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking and ranked as Number Two on the Forbes Fast Tech 25, a list of the 25 fastest growing Public Tech companies,based on three-year average sales growth of 63%.

As we look ahead in 2017, we are committed to invest in modern CIOs who are looking beyond the traditionalapplication lens to the overall future of cloud networking. I see tremendous opportunities to expand our strategy and executionfuture of cloud networking. with Arista’s five initiatives:

Available Architecture: Delivering a self-healing architecture of quality and aperture across a highly available leaf-spine network with redundancy. f-spine network with redundancy.AAgile Work-X: With micro work-X services such as bare metal compute or new workloads like containers, work-

streams video or workflow for storage.AAutomation Workload mobility across the cloud network and the emerging container infrastructures for rapid and : Wagile provisioning in minutes rather than hours or days. Analytics: Tracing the workflow information across the different domains through telemetry tracers that abstract the actionable meta-data state correlation.Any API Cloud: Whereby the state of the network (via Arista NetDB™) and open APIS offers Private and Hybrid Cloud deployments with partners in the Arista ecosystem.

Our commitment and approach is reflected in our March 2017 announcement in which we introduced a game-changer to the network industry with our Containerized EOS® (containerized Extensible Operating System) architecture to support alternate models of procuring, packaging and deploying Arista’s EOS® across cloud, enterprises and service providers. With cEOSTM, we are extending choices beyond hardware to support EOS on virtual machines, containers and third-party merchant silicon-based switches.

Arista has maintained a strong culture we call the Arista Way. This philosophy means doing the right thing for our customers while enabling employees to deliver high quality products and support. Our commitment to quality, a key foundational value, is unwavering while continually striving to drive long term value for our stockholders, customers, partnersand employees.

I thank you for your steadfast support.

Jayshree Ullal President and CEO Arista Networks, Inc. April 19, 2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE PROXY MATERIALS AND OUR ANNUALMEETING................................................................................................................................................ 1

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ........................................................... 7Nominees for Director.......................................................................................................................... 7Continuing Directors ............................................................................................................................ 8Director Independence ......................................................................................................................... 9Board Leadership Structure.................................................................................................................. 10Lead Independent Director................................................................................................................... 10Board Meetings and Committees ......................................................................................................... 11Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation........................................................... 13Considerations in Evaluating Director Nominees ................................................................................ 13Stockholder Recommendations for Nominations to the Board of Directors ....................................... 13Communications with the Board of Directors...................................................................................... 14Corporate Governance Guidelines and Code of Business Conduct and Ethics ................................... 14Risk Management................................................................................................................................. 14Director Compensation ........................................................................................................................ 15

PROPOSAL NO. 1 ELECTION OF DIRECTORS .................................................................................... 17Nominees.............................................................................................................................................. 17Vote Required ....................................................................................................................................... 17

PROPOSAL NO. 2 ADVISORY VOTE ON EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION ....................................... 18Vote Required ....................................................................................................................................... 18

PROPOSAL NO. 3 RATIFICATION OF APPOINTMENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTEREDPUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM ............................................................................................................. 19

Fees Paid to the Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm ...................................................... 19Auditor Independence .......................................................................................................................... 20Audit Committee Policy on Pre-Approval of Audit and Permissible Non-Audit Services of

Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm............................................................................. 20Vote Required ....................................................................................................................................... 20

REPORT OF THE AUDIT COMMITTEE ................................................................................................. 21EXECUTIVE OFFICERS........................................................................................................................... 22EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION............................................................................................................... 24

Compensation Discussion and Analysis............................................................................................... 24Overview .............................................................................................................................................. 24Executive Compensation Philosophy and Objectives .......................................................................... 26Executive Compensation Program Components.................................................................................. 29Executive Officer Employment Arrangements .................................................................................... 32Fiscal 2016 Summary Compensation Table ......................................................................................... 34Outstanding Equity Awards at 2016 Year-End ..................................................................................... 35Fiscal 2016 Grants of Plan-Based Awards ........................................................................................... 38Fiscal 2016 Option Exercises and Stock Vested .................................................................................. 39

Pension Benefits ........................................................................................................................................... 39Nonqualified Deferred Compensation ......................................................................................................... 39Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control ...................................................................... 39Risk Assessment and Compensation Practices............................................................................................. 40Compensation Committee Report ................................................................................................................ 41Equity Compensation Plan Information....................................................................................................... 42

SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT ........................ 43RELATED PERSON TRANSACTIONS............................................................................................................ 46

Investors’ Rights Agreement ........................................................................................................................ 46Other Transactions........................................................................................................................................ 46Policies and Procedures for Related Party Transactions .............................................................................. 46

OTHER MATTERS............................................................................................................................................. 47Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance ....................................................................... 47Fiscal Year 2016 Annual Report and SEC Filings ....................................................................................... 47

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AnnualR

COMPARISON OF CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURNAmong ANET, the NYSE Composite Index and the

S&P 500 ANET NYSE Composite Index S&P 500

Dec-13 Dec-14 Dec-15 Dec-16

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Arista Networks, Inc. 2016 Annual Report

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