Cisco eyes future Linksys strategy
By
Stephen Lawson
,
IDG News Service
, 04/03/2007
- Share/Email
- Tweet This
- Print
Cisco Systems Inc. is modifying the channel strategy for its Linksys consumer and small-business brand as the enterprise networking
giant moves deeper into its subsidiary's traditional territory.
Over the next two to three months, Cisco plans to make it easier for Linksys resellers to add Cisco products to their offerings
and vice versa, said Lauren Ventura, senior director in Cisco's global small and medium-size business (SMB) group. The company
is also considering a change to its Linksys brand strategy, she said. A decision on this move, which might involve making
Linksys a sub-brand of Cisco or some other change, will probably be made in the same time frame, according to Ventura.
Cisco has been putting more resources into SMB products in the past few years as it sees fast-growing demand in that market.
On Tuesday, at the annual Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas, it introduced a set of unified communications products called
the Smart Business Communication System and said the offering was aimed particularly at organizations with 20 or fewer employees.
Linksys, which it acquired in 2003, has an extensive lineup of its own for small-business customers in addition to its consumer
home-network gear. The business line includes routers, switches, IP (Internet Protocol) phones and voice gateways. The difference
is that Linksys products don't include advanced features such as unified communications, which combines voice calls and messaging
and can integrate them into applications, she said. The wholly owned subsidiary's products are suited to customers that don't
see a need for such features and tend to be looking for a less expensive product, she said.
However, Cisco's push for those advanced features moved farther down the market with Tuesday's announcement. At the same time,
Cisco has a program that lets customers trade in Linksys gear for Cisco products, Ventura said.
Solid Networks Inc., a reseller in Modesto, California, is certified to sell Linksys products but doesn't, said Philip Alfrey,
director of business development at Solid. Cisco-branded products such as the UC500 offer small businesses the foundation
of the company's higher end products, which they can build on as they grow, he said. Another reseller of both lines, Brian
Simms of Advanced Technical Solutions, in Scott Depot, West Virginia, said his company sells Linksys if the customer specifically
asks for it. The brand may be more popular among those who don't use system integrators, Simms said.
The Linksys brand for business will go away eventually, but how long it takes will depend on customers, said analyst Frank
Dzubeck, of Communications Network Architects Inc. Before that, Cisco will eliminate overlaps so there aren't, for example,
both Linksys and Cisco routers or switches, he said. In the case of those types of products, "There isn't a reason in the
world why the two should coexist," he said. Linksys would keep smaller products such as cable connectors and surveillance
cameras.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
Partner Content
www.bmc.com
Gartner 2009 Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling
Gartner has positioned BMC CONTROL-M in the Leaders Quadrant of their "2009 Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling." The report assesses the ability to execute and completeness of vision of key vendors in the marketplace. Read a full copy today, courtesy of BMC Software.
Download whitepaper
Dell's SMART Approach to Workload Automation
Read a compelling case study by EMA, Inc. to learn how Dell uses BMC CONTROL-M to cut cost and increase productivity with workload automation.
Download whitepaper
Workload Automation Cost Savings 2 Minute Video
A major computer manufacturer uses BMC CONTROL-M and just four people to schedule and run over 85,000 jobs every month. By switching to BMC CONTROL-M, they more than quadrupled the workload without adding a single staff member. See how in this 2-minute video overview.
Go to video
Comment