Should Cisco use external components for its switches?

Cisco is in an interesting dilemma regarding the processors at the heart of its gear, writes Andrew Schmitt in Seeking Alpha. He says Cisco is dogged in its determination to pursue ASICs for the majority of its systems, rather than buy silicon from external suppliers such as Broadcom and risk opening its products to be copied.

He writes:

Cisco can afford to fund their own ASICs because of the premium prices they charge. It is generally believed that buying standard silicon on the open market would be a cheaper solution for Cisco, but would open the risk that their products are cloned by vendors such as Huawei.

Schmitt believes market or technological changes will eventually force "Cisco's Ethernet business to outside silicon suppliers."

But would the use of standard components indeed lead to easier cloning of Cisco gear and spell the beginning of the end for Cisco's dominance?

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