Science and Technology Silicon Valley Shaped by Technology and Traffic - New York Times
ALVISO, Calif. — Palo Alto Networks is a high-tech start-up with ample financing and ambitious plans. But despite its name, the company has no offices in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley’s unofficial capital. Instead, it is based about a dozen miles farther south, on the outskirts of San Jose, in Alviso. The company is developing technology to protect computer networks from hackers and misuse, so it chose to be where engineers with networking expertise are clustered: around big companies in the field like Cisco and Juniper Networks.
Nir Zuk, its founder and chief technology officer, notes that Palo Alto is synonymous with high-tech innovation, and he was living there when he came up with the name.
“But in Silicon Valley, you locate a company where the engineers are,” he said. “You would never locate a networking company in Palo Alto.”