Huber + Suhner Polatis team enjoy 25th anniversary celebrations
The Polatis team at Huber + Suhner on Cambridge Science Park marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the original Polatis business with a celebration for the whole team.
Polatis Limited was founded by Andrew Dames in Cambridge in 2000. The company was exploring the technology of optical network distributors, specifically optical switches, and became a world leader in this field.
The company merged with a US optical technology company in 2005, and was then acquired by Swiss company Huber + Suhner in 2016. A specialist in connectivity solutions, the company was itself a merger that took place in 1969 between two Swiss companies.
Today the renamed business entity is Huber + Suhner Polatis Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Huber + Suhner AG, which operates as a separate business unit and employs the UK staff. The company remains the stronger brand although the Polatis range is successful in their own right.
The Polatis range of all-optical switches enables new low-latency hybrid architectures that allow data centres to scale to meet the demands of current and emerging virtual cloud services. Its highly reliable piezoelectric Directlight beam-steering technology sets the industry standard for lowest optical loss and highest performance. With more than a billion port-hours accumulated on deployed units, the Polatis technology platform delivers a broad range of class-leading all-optical matrix switch products into demanding applications.
The Polatis team draws upon talented innovators from some of the best research institutions in the world - including MIT and Cambridge University - with a wealth of experience in optics, mechanics, materials and transmission systems.
The Cambridge site, with about 100 employees, is still the focus of all design, development and prototyping of new switch products while manufacturing is based in Poland, where only eight days previously a new cutting-edge factory was opened, with a current headcount of more than 200.
Daryl Smith, senior product engineer and the longest continuously serving team member - pictured cutting the celebration cake - said: “Above all I appreciate the friendships, shared knowledge and experiences (life and work) and good humour that seems to be in the DNA of this remarkable company.”
And Louise Gyton, senior materials controller, said of the anniversary milestone: “One thing stood out from previous companies I had worked at - the people, all working together towards a common goal, working tirelessly and sometimes long into the night, to get our product over the line and out to the customer.”
The managing director of Huber + Suhner Polatis is Robert Smith. He reports into the COO of the Communication segment at corporate HQ in Switzerland.
“We are not just celebrating 25 years of Polatis and its existence today,” said Mr Smith. “We are also celebrating Polatis as it moves into the next chapter of our business, a very exciting future.”
