When one studies the story of David and Goliath, it talks about how long Goliath and the Philistines wreaked havoc on the King Saul and company; they shook in their boots and hid behind rocks. That included David's brothers.

Yup, your recounting of the fallen is worthy of telling. I was a purist when it came to technology ... my testing and research showed Cisco was far from perfect. But Cisco had learned well from IBM and it didn't matter if their technology was the best. Just market and wine-n-dine the execs, and you'll be the vendor of choice.

Years ago, IBM mainframes came under attack by a virus. Machines were falling down every where. My pager and phone were burning up; there was no fear though because we did not have an IBM mainframe. IBM took a nasty hit that day.

Goliath was arrogant when he faced David. He assumed no one could beat him, especially a little boy. Yet, David used a unique weapon to stop him and Goliath's own sword to kill him.

Cisco has been arrogant for years. They believe they are invincible. I fear one day someone will create a new weapon and it will fall the mighty Cisco. My concern is that it will decimate networks from one coast to another. Very few will have learned to build fire breaks in their network.

As they have said in the past, it's not a matter of "if" but "when".

Bryan Ruhf