Are CCIEs protecting their turf to the detriment of employers?

By Brad Reese on Fri, 10/12/07 - 6:38pm.

Like Microsoft in the OS market, Cisco has become the standard for switches and routers in most of the medium to large companies in the United States.

Although some vendors such as Enterasys, Foundry and Riverbed are making in roads into niche Cisco markets, over coming the Cisco mind set can be tough.

This can be especially true when a CCIE is involved who wants to protect his turf. For some CCIEs, the fear is that bringing in another vendor will weaken the “CCIE clout” one carries within the company.

"I could care less what vendor my employer decides to purchase from. My training and certifications are largely about standards based technologies, be they implemented by Cisco or one of their competitors," said Richard Pickard - Dual CCIE No. 12388 Security / Routing and Switching.

"I want my employer to purchase the best product. Naturally, I enjoy the perks of being Cisco certified but, my training goes far beyond just Cisco boxes."

Sales people working for Cisco competitors often point out to potential customers how their CLI is just like Cisco’s and their gear has to work with Cisco’s if they want to have any customers at all.

For example, when you go to Activate NetFlow, the commands are almost identical across vendors.

Why shouldn’t it be? Cisco invented the technology.

"I talk with new companies everyday and Cisco is very dominant in the routed and switched market. Maybe one out of 20 companies is calling us to get Scrutinizer NetFlow Analyzer working with a switch or router that isn’t made by Cisco," said Michael Patterson - chief executive officer of Plixer International.

"I think many companies are afraid to purchase outside of Cisco for fear of interoperability. It’s really crazy, there is some great network gear out there that isn’t made by Cisco."

"Cisco centric bigotry is certainly something to be on guard for but, then again perhaps being completely committed to Cisco isn’t such a bad idea. I remember an old phrase: No body ever got fired for going with IBM."

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