Calix Takes HQ to Silicon Valley From Telecom Valley

Moving its headquarters to San Jose, Calif., was part need and part messaging for Calix in its transformation from a vendor of access products into a communications software platforms company.

"As a communications platform leader, we're clearly better-placed in San Jose than Petaluma. The transformation of the company is complete from a technology standpoint," said Calix CEO Carl Russo in an interview with Broadband World News about the timing of the move.

And while Calix will retain a presence in Petaluma, Calif. -- historically known as Telecom Valley -- its move to Silicon Valley simplifies and accelerates Calix's ability to leverage cloud, cross-platform connectivity and next-generation infrastructure technologies, Russo said. With Calix's executive briefing center only two miles from the San Jose Airport, it's a convenient stop for prospective customers, partners and employees, he noted.

"People who are developing software platforms are developing them in Silicon Valley," Russo said. "As a software platform company, this is where the center of gravity has to be. We haven't developed our hardware for quite a few years."

At a formal ribbon cutting ceremony this week, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo welcomed Calix to the California city. "Calix joins a growing number of innovative companies choosing to make their home in North San Jose, where they will find enormous opportunity to access talent, a top-tier customer base, and room to scale in the years to come," he said in a release.

Long before the pomp and circumstance, Calix had a presence in the Valley for six years but as it continued to build its teams and add people, the need to stake a bigger claim in the area became apparent, Russo said. "If I said to you software platforms, you might think of Google, or you might think of Netflix or you might think of Uber -- and people who are developing software platforms, guess where they're developing them? They're developing them in Silicon Valley. They're not developing them anywhere else in the US. Look, stated arrogantly or selfishly, Silicon Valley is the seat of innovation in the world. Anyone trying to develop software platforms as core and central to their business -- and I don't know why you would develop a software platform if it wasn't core and central to your business -- is based within a nine-iron of where I sit, maybe a five iron, but it's not far."

With its headquarters relocated, three platforms available and in use by service providers, Calix now considers its transformation complete and its days as a traditional access vendor over, Russo said.

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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana.