Cisco MARS in the doghouse?

In August last year, Jon Oltsik, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group praised the success of Cisco MARS (Monitoring Analysis and Response System), noting that Cisco is giving away "the razors [MARS] to sell the blades [Cisco's core networking gear]," and that "No one can schmooze the enterprise networking crowd like Cisco." Now Oltsik has changed his opinion, referring to poor MARS a product in Cisco's "doghouse".

In his blog on cnet, Oltsik explains that Cisco in 2005 and 2006 aggressively pushed the security product into end-user accounts but the product "languished behind competitive offerings, causing problems with the installed base." He cites competition from Enterasys, Juniper, and Nortel, which established partnerships with Q1 Labs. Also, "some Cisco sales executives and channel partners eschewed MARS in favor of more popular Cisco products. When you have a portfolio of hundreds of products, it is easy to lead with your best stuff and never mention those in the doghouse," Oltsik writes.

So what of MARS' future. Oltsik says Cisco has three choices: Admit defeat and get out; double down on MARS development; or replace MARS with another acquisition.

More from Cisco Subnet:
* Cisco responds to SMARTnet antitrust lawsuit
* Report: Cisco not cutting jobs
* Video: A peek inside Cisco's DNA data center lab
* Q&A with Riverbed chief evangelist
* Spotlight on CCVP
* Cisco releases dates for public CCIE Wireless exams
* Cisco Subnet's top 10 Cisco stories of 2008
* The IT Swiss Army Knife - Cisco Network Compliance Manager
* Making the CCIE Plunge
* Under the hood: Cisco unified communications
* Cisco News and Review podcast
* Jimmy Ray Purser Networking Geek to Geek podcast
Go to Cisco Subnet for more Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, book giveaways, and more.
 

• Cisco
• Cisco MARS
• Cisco Monitoriing Analysis and Response System
• Cisco Security
• Enterasys
• Jon Oltsik
• Juniper
• Nortel
• Q1 Labs