Amazon.com's (AMZN) technology road map for next-generation data centers has upside for optical component makers Finisar (FNSR), Lumentum Holdings (LITE), Oclaro(OCLR), and Acacia Communications (ACIA), says a William Blair analyst who attended Amazon's re:Invent cloud computing conference this week.

Internet companies such as Facebook (FB), Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google and Amazon have pioneered open-source software concepts in data centers. They've lowered data center costs by running software on so-called "white-box" servers and switches, often built by lesser-known suppliers.

Now, Amazon Web Services, the cloud business of Amazon, as well as Facebook and Microsoft(MSFT) aim to speed up communications by putting high-speed optical components directly in server racks, says William Blair analyst Dmitry Netis, who attended re:Invest.

"We believe the move to fiber at a server/rack level opens up a massive opportunity at the transceiver level for datacom optics vendors, specifically Finisar, Lumentum, Oclaro, Inphi (IPHI), Macom, and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI)," said Netis in his research report Thursday.

"Assuming two transceiver modules per server at $250 average selling price per module, we arrive to $1.8 billion opportunity for server-side optics," Netis estimated.