Not very good news for Cisco in the education market today. Network World's Jim Duffy is reporting of two schools that are switching out Cisco switches for equipment from rival vendors due to what they say is greater feature/functionality from competitive offerings, and lower prices, reports Duffy.
Fayetteville State University (FSU) in Fayetteville, N.C., is replacing more than 50 of its 280 Cisco switches with ConSentry equipment because of the embedded network access control (NAC) capabilities of those switches. FSU said it suffered problems with Cisco Clean Access NAC appliance, which kept going down.
Duffy reports:
The Cisco solution depended on Cisco desktop software to provide that endpoint verification. Clean Access verifies whether users are running updated antivirus and antispyware software, but it doesn’t scan users’ computers for the actual presence of malware on that machine. As a result, Trojans, denial-of-service attacks and other malware entered the FSU network and brought down the Clean Access platform. Also, bad traffic from users could hit the Clean Access server even if they had not authenticated or passed the EPV check, because that server was set up as the default gateway, according to FSU.
While FSU plans to remain predominantly a Cisco shop, St. Francis High School is replacing virtually all of its Cisco equipment with HP ProCurve gear. The school is swapping out Catalyst 4000, 2900XL, 2980G, and 3500XL switches for HP ProCurve’s 5300, 2800 and 2600 switches, says Larry Steinke, director of technology at the school. The 4000, 2900XL and 3500XL have reached end-of-life status anyway, Steinke notes. “It basically [came down to] pricing, warranty and industry compatibility,” Steinke says.
Read the full story, including Cisco's response, here.
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77 Switches?
77 switches? I think I have that in my lab.
I doubt Cisco is losing sleep over this one.
Not sure this rises to the level of newsworthy.
Mike
Only 77 Switches
I agree, 77 switches is not newsworthy, however, the fact that Cisco is returning to their days of arrogance is...the only problem now is that we as users don't have Wellfleet, 3Com, Fore, Cabletron etc. that could be used to keep Cisco honest
RE: Only 77 Switches
Juniper? Foundry? Force10? HP? Extreme?
These companies have the technology to keep Cisco honest, but that's not the problem.
There are plenty of good network hardware companies out there. The question is whether the need to change is greater than the risk. Using another vendor is more than a technology issue. Cisco has an incredibly strong user community, wide ranging tech support, and a strong channel. That is stuff the other companies can't bring to the table.
What does it take for someone to throw out Cisco?
Reading this article it is just amazing what customers are willing to put up with and still give Cisco their money. The guy in NC should be told to look for alternatives for the rest of his Cisco gear or find another job. It may be only 77 switches that they replaced with ConSentry but it is a start at least!
I have written more about this on my blog here.
You never get fired for buying Cisco???
In my organization, if you waste money to simply buy a particular brand name without technical justification...you're gone! Switching is a commodity. Use the best price/performance gear available! Until corporations start buying alternative products from Entersys, HP or Force 10, Cisco will continue to dictate price points which hurts all our bottem lines.
Come on. A switch is a
Come on. A switch is a switch? Really? I think anyone who actually works with networking gear knows that is simply not true. I'm not talking about folks up in the adminisphere...not CXO level people. I'm talking about guys and gals in the trenches. The ones responsible for actually making this gear work. I've ran HP, 3Com, Extreme and Cabletron. When its down to brass tacks Cisco has hands-down the best end-to-end solution, the most innovation and strongest R&D and by far the best support.
Cisco -vs- HP LAN
I have 55 remote sites which each have 8 to 13 swtiches in the network closets. We add new sites each year. About 30 of my older sites have Cisco in the closets, but each new site (for the past 5-6 years) has been outfitted with HP switches. The cost per port is less, the reliability is a bit better in my experience, and the warranty / support by the manufacture is superior @ HP.
I have cisco and hp
I have cisco and hp switches, but when i replace i go cisco. as far as support is concerned anyone who says HP over cisco must not have recently supported network equipment. as far as features i dont think anyone can honestly say there is really competition in that area. not to mention that when you have a network complete with cisco alot of monioting tools can give you a top down view of the entire network router to firewall to switch. i do agree they need to come down in pricing, but if they did they would probably put alot of their competetors out of business. not to mention just a year or so ago HP was looking at eliminating their switching line, also has anyone looked at the HP SAN solution I have a few classes, P class to the new C and they have cisco switches for the backplane to the blades, now if HP who has switching product is using cisco does that tell you somthing?
Cisco vs. HP
I guess your manager should question you and ask if you are doing what's best for the company. No doubt that Cisco has great products but you should not buy product based on brand but your requirements. A majority of people buy Cisco just to be save because they can't really define their requirements. I believe if you can define your requirements and have the goal of not being dependent on one vendor (propriatory features), you will find other, cheaper alternatives to Cisco to get the job done. Have you ever wondered why companies that provide company cars to their employees don't give them Porsches or Ferraris? The reason is that the employees can get the work done driving a Ford or GM, not a Porsche.
Cisco vs HP
We did a very complete comparison between the Cisco 3560/3750 and the HP Procurve. Believe it or not, Cisco has a lifetime warranty on these 2 switches and the Procurve solution actually cost a few thousand more in total price when all was added up. Our Universiyy is much better off staying with Cisco and they offer the same or better functionality in our environment, and much better 24 hour support. Which by the way, is not free with HP either.