From the Field

Michael Morris

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Cisco Steps Up to Solve a Problem

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

By michaeljmorris on Sun, 09/20/09 - 8:40pm.

If you have read my blogs recently you might say I've been a little tough on Cisco. A couple weeks ago I beat up Cisco over their poor "Validated Architecture for Long Distance VMotion". I praised their biggest competitor to Nexus 1000V, Arista. And probably toughest of all, I told people to keep competition in their network to drive down costs.

So, to be honest and fair, I have to give Cisco their due this week. I cannot go into details, but essentially Cisco's BUs made some mistakes that left a real gap between hardware and software availability. Essentially, some new hardware wouldn't work on mainline IOS; we'd have to run T-code. This wouldn't have just affected my company, but many other customers.

After making this problem clear to Cisco and insisting on a fix, Cisco's first reaction was it was too hard to fix. This led to a few more phone calls and finally Cisco's management understanding this was customer impacting. As a company that respects customer's needs, Cisco committed to finding a resolution within two weeks.

The other day, just within two weeks, Cisco provided a very acceptable solution to the problem which doesn't just fix the problem for us, but all customers. Cisco took the time to accept the problem, identify the cause (Cisco itself), and find a resolution that helps customers.

Hats off to Cisco! Despite Cisco's size, they were able to respond to a customer's problem and quickly organize to find a solution. More businesses, had they done this over the years, might still be around.

More >From the Field blog entries:

I Have Not Been Consistent on Dual Vendors

Cisco's New "Validated Architecture for Long Distance VMotion" is Cheap Marketing

Arista's New vEOS Providing Competition for the Cisco Nexus 1000V

It's One of Those Opinionated Days Again

A Private Extranet for Cloud Computing

It's Really Only Partly Cloudy Out There

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About From the Field

Michael Morris is a communications engineering manager at a $3-billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos and developing large-scale routing designs. He has worked on networks at government and corporate organizations, including networks at two Fortune 10 companies. In his current role, he leads a team of 10 engineers responsible for large-scale IT networking projects and architectural standards for data networks, storage area networks, IP telephony, contact centers, and security. Michael is CCIE #11733 and recently became one of the first three Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDE) ever (#20080002). He has 11 years experience in networking and communications, including four years as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He has a bachelor's degree in MIS from the University at Buffalo and is working on his MBA from NC State University. In 2008, he was awarded the Network Professional Association (NPA) Professional Excellence and Innovation Award for his work on network architecture, templates and enterprise MPLS design.

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