Cisco lays out Big Blue-print

Company begins to outline migration plan for users of IBM network gear.

By Marc Songini
Network World, 12/20/99

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - Cisco last week began laying out a plan it hopes will encourage IBM network equipment users to migrate to Cisco gear.

In an interview with Network World, Cisco executives said the company soon will offer a variety of new products, including enhanced network and performance management packages as well as customer services, that should help IBM network users make the jump into the Cisco world.

Cisco's plans include:

Working closely with IBM Global Services to develop SNA-to-IP and related voice migration services using Cisco products.
Helping users assess the viability of current gear and outlining upgrade paths to Cisco products.
Revamping Cisco's Internetworking Status Monitor (ISM) to help users more effectively manage routers from mainframes.
Arranging for IBM subsidiary Tivoli to resell CiscoWorks Blue, a network management package.
Enhancing Tivoli's management software to control Cisco-based virtual private networks (VPN).

The migration blueprint comes on the heels of the U.S. government's recent approval of Cisco's estimated $600 million buyout of IBM's Networking Hardware Division's (NHD) routing and switching business (NW, Dec. 13, page 1). The buy effectively rendered Big Blue's routing and switching gear obsolete.

Despite having the option, Cisco has expressed no interest in incorporating any specific IBM network technology into its lineup - which makes users such as Carl Brandt nervous. Brandt is a network administrator at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.

The university's ATM backbone is heavily dependent upon IBM's 8265 and 8260 switches to support a variety of traffic. Brandt figures his IBM ATM products are as good as dead, although he hopes Cisco will support them - along with IBM's other technologies.

Specifically, Brandt fears losing IBM's Multiprotocol Switched Services (MSS) server technology, which runs ATM, IP and IPX traffic in an ATM network. MSS may have no parallel in the Cisco product lineup, Brandt says. Moreover, he doesn't want his shop to become totally dependent on one vendor.

"Cisco needs to look at this as a tremendous opportunity. They can either really come out shining or really irritate a lot of people," Brandt says. "It's a chance to make some points with the non-Cisco users."

It is this type of user Cisco has to please in order for the deal to succeed.

With this in mind, Cisco is scrambling to tie itself closer to IBM. For example, about 50 Cisco employees are working on better ways to communicate with IBM. Cisco also says it is working closely with IBM's massive IBM Global Services division, which will be free to design and implement Cisco-based networks to a degree that wasn't allowed before the deal. The idea is to develop services that will help users migrate to Cisco IP and voice-over-IP products.

In addition,Cisco sales representatives will work with existing IBM sales personnel on sales calls. "We're not going in and replacing the IBM sales team," says Frank Maly, head of marketing for Cisco InterWorks Business Division. Cisco representatives will go to IBM accounts and offer their gear as a replacement for existing devices, he adds.

"We've got some agreed- upon rules of engagement," says Towney Kennard, a vice president with IBM.

IBM will continue to support its existing network gear for years, adds Rob Zimmer, an NHD executive. Some customers intend to proceed with IBM-based network implementations despite the sale of NHD, he notes. "When a customer makes a decision like that, they don't rip out the gear lightly," Zimmer says.

For customers who are interested, Cisco will conduct a network assessment and suggest possible Cisco alternatives to the IBM equipment. Because it might take two or three years to complete the migration of a customer, there will be interim fixes for users who want to hang on to their gear, Cisco's Maly says.

On the product side, Cisco will revamp ISM, a mainframe-based software tool for monitoring routers. With the upcoming changes, ISM will perform three times faster than today's package, and network professionals will no longer have to go through a Cisco Native Service Point monitor to gather network statistics. The package will help IBM users manage mixed Cisco/IBM gear networks. The rollout of the new version of ISM should be available by the middle of 2000, Maly says.

Cisco has already begun taking advantage of IBM's Tivoli subsidiary. For example, IBM users can now buy Cisco's management products, called CiscoWorks Blue, from Tivoli. Maly says the two companies will also work to develop Tivoli software that will make it easier to manage VPNs and other Cisco gear. Exact product plans are still being worked out, he says.