Cutting out the channel, are we seeing Cisco's future with the launch of Eos?

Senior Vice President Dan Scheinman's brainchild may turn out to be Cisco's ace in the hole.

By Brad Reese on Fri, 08/14/09 - 8:08am.

Perhaps we're seeing Cisco's future with the launch of its new software platform - Eos. By cutting out channel partners as it sells Eos software, Cisco might be able to maintain high profit margins even during the ongoing commoditization of older Cisco products sold through the channel.

The Cisco Eos software platform (pronounced as the word, EE-oss) is named after the goddess of dawn in Greek mythology. According to Cisco, Eos is a hosted, white-label software platform that enables Media and Entertainment (M&E) companies to create and deliver a community-driven entertainment experience online. Media companies can use the Eos software platform to build interactive and immersive communities around their content and brands. Eos is a business to business to consumer play. Cisco is selling Eos to M&E companies, who then offer the software-as-a-service (SaaS) on their consumer-facing websites.

Cisco continued that Eos was developed by the Cisco Media Solutions Group (CMSG), an internal Cisco startup led by Dan Scheinman - Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's CMSG. Scheinman previously led Cisco’s Corporate Development team and was responsible for overseeing the merger and acquisition, venture investment, and strategic alliance functions within Cisco. Under his leadership, Cisco extended its focus to the consumer space with the acquisitions of Linksys and Scientific Atlanta.

What gets me excited are the professional services that Cisco can now sell directly to M&E companies.

Cisco Eos Professional Services:

Cisco added that as an independent PHP application, Eos is responsible for delivering the right markup for the right page, as well as all of the right CSS, underlying images, JavaScript, and other page elements:

Cisco points out that a variety of starter templates enable content owners to deploy websites rapidly through Eos’s "One-Step Site Creation" feature. These templates function as starting points for as much or as little customization to the look and feel as the content owner chooses. Templates and components can be skinned to fit any customer’s requirements, and software modules can be added to customize the features on a site:

My main area of concern regarding Cisco Eos:

I believe Cisco might have failed to "factor in" that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. So I ask, what happens if M&E companies "squander" the capabilities of Cisco Eos?

Chief Digital Officer View of Cisco Eos:

Brand Manager View of Cisco Eos:

Web Developer View of Cisco Eos:

Web Administrator View of Cisco Eos:

Consumer View of Cisco Eos:

Contact Cisco Eos Sales Directly:

Related stories:

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Warner backing Cisco Eos

Cisco charts new paths with Eos media platform

What's your take, by cutting out the channel with Eos, is Cisco's new software platform business model the future?