LANs /

3Com's fall from enterprise grace

By Michael Cooney
Network World Fusion, 03/27/00

Samuel Johnson once said "He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty."

Well, there is now one less certainty in the network world: 3Com.

3Com last week said that it wanted to focus on new high-growth markets and get out of large enterprise LAN/WAN switching and analog modem businesses. 3Com then said it had entered into relationships with Extreme Networks and Motorola to move its switch customers to those vendors.

In a nutshell, another enterprise network player has run screaming into the night.

It's funny how vendors such as 3Com always say the customer comes first or the famous "we are a customer-driven company." Yeah, right. In reality, profits and making money are first and second - that's business, I know. Just once, wouldn't it be nice, albeit funny, to hear a vendor be truthful in marketing and say: "Customer concerns are way down on our list of worries"?

A user of 3Com equipment summed up the company's moves by saying in our online forum: "This appears to leave all of us who have invested heavily into the 3Com CoreBuilder strategy on very shaky ground." Another reader was more succinct: "It is always nice to get screwed by a manufacturer."

So what was 3Com's problem anyway? Lack of vision? Always a good excuse. Product problems? Doesn't seems so. Wussy marketing? Well, maybe, compared to Cabletron in its heyday. Or perhaps the company was pounded into mush by supercompetitor Cisco.

It was probably a combination of all of those things and more.

Speaking of Cisco: You know those folks have to be doubled over laughing. The company has gleefully watched once-formidable competitors Cabletron, IBM and Lucent in recent months pull out (in IBM's case, sell out ) or reorganize their enterprise net businesses. And Nortel Networks can't seem to get its next-generation Layer 3 switch out the door. No matter how you look at the situation, though, all of these moves have left a path of end-user fear, uncertainty and doubt in its wake.

Not a good place to be if your business depends on these companies and their gear. My best advice would be to ring up your local Extreme and Motorola representatives and get to know them. Then maybe take any old 3Com gear and mail it back to 3Com's enterprise networks chief Edgar Masri marked C.O.D.