Every company has its founding story. For eBay, it was Pierre Omidyar’s (possibly mythical) search for Pez dispensers. For Cisco Systems, it was the frustration of founders Len and Sandy Bosack being unable to e-mail each other because they were on different networks, even though they both worked at Stanford University.
Infoblox has its own founding anecdotes as well: how Stu Bailey, as a researcher studying database architectures at the University of Illinois campus in Chicago, became frustrated with network downtime, and soon realized that colleagues across the city were equally frustrated; that Infoblox was the first startup to get funding from Sequoia Capital through an initial “cold call” (well, cold e-mail).
As a company grows, those stories tend to fade and be forgotten. That’s why I worked with our human resources and facilities teams to create the new Infoblox Heritage and Innovation Center on the second floor of our company headquarters in Santa Clara, California. We’ve spent two years creating a space that showcases Infoblox’s unique heritage and emphasizes the way we’re driving the evolution of network and security technology.
Spread across four “topic towers” – parallelogram-shaped pillars linked at the top by clusters of the all-important Ethernet cable that drives networking ubiquity – as well as multiple wall displays, the Center tells all the stories of Infoblox – its founding and early days; its products, especially within the context of other technology advancements; its culture (of creativity, of customer focus, of community involvement); its patents; and its most enduring customer success stories.
It will in no way be static. We designed the Center so that it can grow as the company grows – adding displays of our early products, adding milestones in our ongoing advancements to the timeline, and even eventually transforming it from completely physical to partially virtual as well, so that our heritage can be shared by all employees and customers online.
Whenever you’re in town, come see what we’ve started, and watch the Innovation and Heritage Center grow as Infoblox grows.