Bengaluru-based networking equipment maker MRO-TEK Networks is preparing to move beyond its traditional carrier and enterprise switching business and into data center switching, according to remarks made by Chief Executive Officer CS Krishnadas during India Mobile Congress 2026 (IMC 2026) and reported by ET Telecom. The company’s plan centers on a disaggregated hardware-software model and an indigenous network operating system the company is calling “SONIC NOS,” a move that places MRO-TEK squarely inside one of the most consequential shifts happening in global data center switching right now: the separation of switching hardware from the software that runs it.
The announcement, made at the 10th edition of IMC in New Delhi, adds a domestic Indian name to a data center switching conversation that has, until recently, been dominated by Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Huawei and a handful of global white-box hardware suppliers. For a networking industry increasingly obsessed with AI infrastructure, cloud capacity and supply-chain sovereignty, MRO-TEK’s pivot is a small but telling data point about where indigenous hardware manufacturing in India is headed next.
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MRO-TEK Networks Bets Big on Data Center Switching
MRO-TEK Networks has spent years building a switching portfolio for carrier, government and enterprise customers. Now the company says data center switching is the next frontier. Krishnadas told ET Telecom that the company intends to go further than simply adding another switch model to its catalog. It wants to build an entire open, disaggregated stack: hardware that can be paired with different software, an indigenous network operating system to run on top of it, and security platforms layered around that NOS.
That framing matters because data center switching is a different competitive arena than the access and aggregation layer where MRO-TEK has traditionally competed. Data center switches sit at the heart of cloud infrastructure, AI training clusters and hyperscale networks, where buyers care deeply about throughput, automation, vendor lock-in and total cost of ownership. Entering that market means MRO-TEK is no longer just competing with other Indian equipment makers on government procurement rules; it is positioning itself, at least rhetorically, against the switching vendors that power the world’s cloud data centers.
What CS Krishnadas Announced at India Mobile Congress 2026
The remarks came during IMC 2026, which ran October 7-10 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi under the theme “Scale Without Boundaries.” The event, now in its 10th year, brought together telecom operators, policymakers and equipment vendors to discuss artificial intelligence, 6G, intelligent RAN, cloud and edge computing, and digital infrastructure, among other themes.
Krishnadas was direct about the company’s next step. “The next step is to get into data center switching. We have a disaggregated approach, with which we are going on to develop our own ‘SONIC NOS’,” he said, as reported by ET Telecom.
He also connected the move to a broader gap he sees in India’s technology landscape. “Though we are a software services-strong country in terms of product development, very few people have looked at NOS. So that is something that we need to invest in,” Krishnadas said, a comment that frames MRO-TEK’s push less as a product launch and more as an attempt to fill a structural hole in India’s networking stack.
The Disaggregated Bet: Why MRO-TEK Is Building Its Own SONiC NOS
Disaggregation is the idea that a network switch does not have to be a single, vertically integrated box from one vendor. Instead, the physical switching hardware (often standardized or “white-box” silicon) is separated from the network operating system that controls it, letting buyers mix and match components, automate configuration more freely, and avoid being locked into one supplier’s roadmap and pricing.
MRO-TEK’s indigenous “SONIC NOS” nods toward SONiC, Software for Open Networking in the Cloud, the open-source network operating system originally developed inside Microsoft and now used widely across hyperscale and enterprise data centers. Building an India-developed, SONiC-based NOS would let MRO-TEK offer customers a software layer it controls end to end, rather than relying on a foreign-developed operating system sitting on top of its hardware.
Krishnadas framed the goal as a full-stack one. He said indigenous vendors need capabilities spanning access, core, switching and routing, not just hardware assembly, which suggests the SONiC NOS effort is meant to anchor a broader software strategy rather than sit as a one-off project tied to a single switch line.
From 1G to 100G: Inside MRO-TEK’s Switching Portfolio
MRO-TEK’s existing switching range already spans 1G through 100G, according to Krishnadas, and the company says these products are already manufactured in India with local content exceeding 60%, qualifying them as Class 1 under the government’s public procurement framework. The company expects its 100G line to attain Class 1 status soon as well (reporting describes that line as approaching the status rather than definitively holding it), which Krishnadas described as a milestone: “That will be a big step up for us.”
| Attribute | Current Switching Business (1G-100G) | New Data Center Switching Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware model | Vertically integrated MRO-TEK switches | Disaggregated hardware, decoupled from software |
| Network OS | Existing MRO-TEK network OS | New indigenous “SONIC NOS” in development |
| Local content | More than 60%, “Made in India” | Continuation of domestic manufacturing emphasis |
| Procurement classification | More than 60% local content across the 1G-100G range | 100G products described as approaching Class-I status |
| Security layer | Standard switch security features | Dedicated security platforms built around the NOS |
| Primary customers | Telecom carriers, government, enterprise | Data center operators (new target segment) |
That table captures the shift in strategic framing: MRO-TEK isn’t abandoning its existing switching business, it’s trying to extend the same “Made in India” local-content story upward into data center switching, a segment with meaningfully higher performance and automation requirements than the carrier access layer it has historically served.
Local Content and Class 1 Status: What It Means for Indian Buyers
India’s public procurement rules classify vendors by local content thresholds, with “Class 1” suppliers meeting the highest domestic-manufacturing bar and typically receiving preferential treatment in government and public-sector tenders. MRO-TEK says its existing 1G-to-100G switching range already clears that bar with local content above 60%, and it is working toward extending Class 1 recognition to its 100G products specifically.
For data center switching, that classification could matter well beyond pure procurement optics. Government, defense, public-sector banking and other mission-critical Indian customers increasingly weigh local-content status alongside raw performance specs when selecting networking vendors, especially in segments the government has flagged as strategically sensitive. If MRO-TEK can carry a similar Class 1 designation into higher-speed data center switches, that gives it a procurement edge domestic customers may value independent of how its silicon compares to Cisco, Arista or Huawei on paper.
Security Platforms Built Around an Indigenous Network OS
Alongside the switching hardware and SONiC NOS effort, Krishnadas said the company is also looking at building security platforms designed to work around that operating system. “We are also looking at building security platforms that can work around our NOS, so that it is a more secure product,” he said.
That combination, an indigenous NOS paired with a purpose-built security layer, is a common theme in sovereign-technology pitches generally: owning the full stack, from silicon to operating system to security tooling, lets a vendor argue it can audit and harden every layer rather than inheriting unknown risk from a foreign-developed component. Whether MRO-TEK can execute that vision at the pace and polish of established security vendors remains an open question the company has not yet detailed with specifics on product names or timelines.
Why SONiC Is Reshaping Data Center Switching Worldwide
MRO-TEK’s bet is not happening in a vacuum. SONiC adoption has been expanding well beyond the hyperscale operators that originally championed it, according to industry analysis published in 2026 covering enterprise SONiC deployments. One widely cited example involves a production SONiC deployment supporting a national digital-payments network in India, reportedly running on several hundred switches across 100G, 400G and 800G connectivity, with operators pointing to lower total cost of ownership as a result of reduced vendor lock-in and more automation-friendly operations. Those figures come from industry reporting rather than an MRO-TEK disclosure, but they help explain why an Indian equipment maker would see an opening in open, disaggregated networking right now.
Disaggregation is particularly relevant to AI and cloud data centers, where operators want to refresh switching hardware on their own schedule, source it from multiple suppliers, and automate configuration across thousands of ports without being tied to a single vendor’s proprietary tooling. That is the same dynamic driving broader industry efforts around open data center networking standards, a trend MRO-TEK is clearly trying to align itself with rather than fight.
MRO-TEK’s Q2 Momentum: Products Revenue Climbs 56.9%
The data center switching announcement lands against a backdrop of recent financial momentum for MRO-TEK. The company’s product business revenue rose 56.9% year-on-year in its most recent reported quarter, according to Communications Today, which cited Aniruddha Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of MRO-TEK Networks, describing the quarter as reflecting continued momentum in the products business alongside execution across the company’s different business verticals. The Economic Times separately reported the products segment recorded 56.86% year-on-year revenue growth for the quarter.
That growth gives the company a financial tailwind as it pitches a more ambitious, capital-intensive move into data center switching and NOS development, segments that typically demand sustained R&D spending well before any meaningful product revenue materializes. The company has not disclosed specific capital allocation figures, launch dates or data-center-switching revenue targets for the new push, and those details remain unconfirmed as of this writing.
Make in India Meets the Data Center Switching Market
MRO-TEK’s announcement also fits into a broader Indian government push to localize telecom and networking manufacturing. IMC 2026 itself, opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was framed around taking India’s telecom and digital infrastructure capabilities to greater scale, spanning AI, 6G, intelligent RAN, cloud and edge computing, cybersecurity, semiconductors and satellite communications. Government and industry materials around the event highlighted Indian manufacturing capabilities across 4G/5G radio, optical transport, IP/MPLS routing, broadband access, satellite communications and data center infrastructure.
That context helps explain why MRO-TEK is choosing now to formalize its data center ambitions. Domestic vendors with Class 1 local-content status already have a built-in advantage in Indian government and public-sector tenders, and extending that advantage into data center switching, a category with growing strategic weight as India builds out AI compute capacity and cloud infrastructure, is a logical next step for a company that has already cleared the local-content bar in lower-speed switching tiers.
Competitive Landscape: MRO-TEK vs Established Data Center Switch Vendors
Data center switching is a crowded, capital-intensive market dominated by a small number of global incumbents, alongside a growing list of white-box and open-NOS challengers. MRO-TEK’s entry puts it in the same conversation as those players, even if its current scale is far smaller.
| Vendor | Primary Base | Network OS Approach | Primary Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRO-TEK Networks | India | New indigenous SONiC-based NOS, disaggregated hardware | Entering data center switching from a carrier and enterprise base |
| Tejas Networks | India | Proprietary platforms, optical and routing focus | Optical transport, IP/MPLS routing, data center interconnect |
| Cisco | United States | Proprietary (IOS/NX-OS family) | Global enterprise and data center switching incumbent |
| Arista Networks | United States | EOS, with growing open-automation support | Cloud and AI data center switching at scale |
| Huawei | China | Proprietary | Global telecom and data center equipment, constrained access in India |
| SONiC/white-box ecosystem | Global, multi-vendor | Open SONiC NOS on standardized hardware | Hyperscale and disaggregated data center deployments |
Within India specifically, Tejas Networks is the closest domestic comparison point, with its own optical transport, routing and data-center-interconnect product lines backed by government manufacturing initiatives. Globally, Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Nokia and Huawei remain the dominant switching vendors for large-scale data center deployments, alongside a growing field of ODM and white-box hardware suppliers that pair commodity switches with open operating systems such as SONiC. MRO-TEK’s pitch is not that it will out-engineer those incumbents on raw silicon performance in the near term, but that it can offer a domestically controlled, security-hardened alternative for customers who prioritize local manufacturing and procurement classification alongside performance.
Historical Context: From Proprietary Boxes to Open, Disaggregated Networking
For most of the data center switching industry’s history, switches shipped as sealed, vertically integrated products: one vendor’s silicon, one vendor’s operating system, one support contract. That model gave buyers predictability but also locked them into a single supplier’s pricing, feature roadmap and hardware refresh cycle.
SONiC’s emergence changed that calculus for a meaningful slice of the market. By decoupling the operating system from the underlying switch silicon, hyperscale operators, and later a widening set of enterprise and telecom customers, gained the ability to shop hardware and software independently, automate network operations more aggressively, and reduce dependence on any single vendor’s upgrade timeline. MRO-TEK’s decision to build its own SONiC-based NOS rather than simply reselling existing open-source distributions suggests the company wants to control that software layer itself, not just consume someone else’s open-source project.
That mirrors a pattern seen elsewhere in India’s networking and AI infrastructure buildout, where hyperscalers and domestic players alike have been racing to secure both compute and networking capacity as AI workloads scale. KT’s recent move to stand up an AI-dedicated network running at 800Gbps, and the broader industry push around open data center networking specifications backed by Nvidia, AMD, Google and Meta, both reflect the same underlying trend: networking infrastructure is being re-architected around AI and cloud workloads that demand far more throughput and automation than traditional carrier networks ever required.
Market Impact: What This Means for Cloud Buyers and Data Center Operators
For Indian cloud and data center operators, MRO-TEK’s entry adds a domestic option to a switching market where procurement decisions increasingly weigh local-content rules alongside pure technical specifications. Public-sector and government-linked data center projects, in particular, may find a Class 1-classified, India-developed switching and NOS combination appealing even before it matches the raw port density or software maturity of established global vendors.
For MRO-TEK itself, the move is a bet that an indigenous NOS and a security layer built around it can become a differentiator rather than just a compliance checkbox. If the company can demonstrate real interoperability and automation capability at 100G and beyond, it could position itself as a credible alternative for India’s expanding AI and cloud compute buildout, an area where companies like AM Intelligence have already committed to large-scale GPU deployments that will require substantial new data center networking capacity to support them.
The broader market impact, though, will depend heavily on execution details MRO-TEK has not yet disclosed, including a concrete SONiC NOS release timeline, specific data-center-switching product specs, and named customer commitments. Until those details surface, the announcement functions more as a strategic signal than a shipped product.
Industry Voices: Reading Between the Lines of MRO-TEK’s Strategy
Krishnadas’s own comments, made directly to ET Telecom, remain the clearest window into the company’s thinking. Beyond the headline plan to enter data center switching, his remarks about India’s networking software gap are notable on their own: “Though we are a software services-strong country in terms of product development, very few people have looked at NOS. So that is something that we need to invest in.”
That comment, more than the data center switching plan itself, is arguably the more interesting claim. India has built a globally recognized software services industry, but Krishnadas is pointing to a specific gap: few Indian companies have taken on the harder, lower-level work of building and maintaining a network operating system, a task that demands deep systems engineering expertise rather than application-layer development. If MRO-TEK’s SONiC NOS effort succeeds, it would represent one of relatively few Indian attempts to build and own that layer of the networking stack rather than license or resell it.
Risks and Predictions: Where This Goes From Here
MRO-TEK has outlined a direction, not a finished product, and several open questions will determine whether the data center switching push becomes a meaningful business line or remains a smaller niche play alongside its existing carrier and enterprise portfolio.
- MRO-TEK will likely need to publish concrete specifications and a release timeline for its SONiC NOS before enterprise and hyperscale buyers treat the project as more than an announcement, given that no launch date has been disclosed.
- Expect MRO-TEK to pursue Class 1 certification for its 100G line as a near-term milestone, using that classification as a procurement lever with government and public-sector data center customers before chasing global hyperscale accounts.
- Competition from Tejas Networks and other domestic vendors pursuing similar “Make in India” data center and optical interconnect strategies will intensify, turning India’s indigenous networking push into a multi-vendor race rather than a single-company story.
- Security platforms built around MRO-TEK’s NOS will be a key differentiator to watch; if the company can demonstrate auditable, India-developed security tooling at the switch level, it could appeal to defense and critical-infrastructure buyers specifically.
- MRO-TEK’s ability to compete at 400G and 800G, the speeds increasingly demanded by AI training clusters and hyperscale cloud operators, will likely determine whether this becomes a credible data center switching business or stays confined to lower-speed, cost-sensitive segments of the Indian market.
The announcement arrives at a moment when data center switching, broadly, is under more scrutiny than usual. AI infrastructure buildouts are driving demand for higher switch throughput, open automation and multi-vendor flexibility all at once, conditions that favor disaggregated, SONiC-style approaches over traditional sealed-box switching. Whether MRO-TEK can translate that favorable backdrop into actual data center switching revenue is now the question the company will need to answer with product, not just statements from India Mobile Congress.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is MRO-TEK Networks?
MRO-TEK Networks is an Indian networking equipment manufacturer that has traditionally supplied switching products to telecom carriers, government agencies and enterprise customers, with an existing switching range spanning 1G to 100G.
What did MRO-TEK announce about data center switching?
CEO CS Krishnadas said at India Mobile Congress 2026 that the company’s next step is entering data center switching, using a disaggregated hardware-software approach and developing its own indigenous network operating system, referred to as “SONIC NOS.”
What is SONiC NOS?
SONiC, or Software for Open Networking in the Cloud, is an open-source network operating system originally developed at Microsoft and now widely used across hyperscale and enterprise data centers. MRO-TEK’s “SONIC NOS” refers to the company’s own indigenous, SONiC-based network operating system currently in development.
What does “Class 1” status mean for MRO-TEK’s products?
Class 1 refers to the highest local-content classification under India’s public procurement framework. MRO-TEK says its existing 1G-to-100G switching range already has local content above 60%, qualifying it as Class 1, and it expects its 100G line specifically to attain Class 1 status soon.
Where was the announcement made?
The remarks were made during India Mobile Congress 2026 (IMC 2026), the 10th edition of the event, held October 7-10, 2026, at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi under the theme “Scale Without Boundaries.”
How is MRO-TEK’s business performing financially?
MRO-TEK’s products segment recorded ₹1,150.69 lakh in revenue in Q2 FY27, up 56.9% year-on-year, according to Communications Today and the Economic Times, providing financial momentum alongside the company’s data center switching ambitions.
Who are MRO-TEK’s main competitors in data center switching?
Domestically, Tejas Networks is the closest Indian comparison point. Globally, established data center switching vendors include Cisco, Arista Networks, Juniper, Nokia and Huawei, alongside a growing ecosystem of white-box hardware suppliers running open network operating systems such as SONiC.
Has MRO-TEK announced a launch date or pricing for its data center switches?
No. MRO-TEK has not disclosed a specific product launch date, pricing, named customers or data-center-switching revenue targets. Those details remain unconfirmed as of this report.
