Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

(Comma separation for multiple addresses)
Your Message:

Cisco fights fakes via used-equipment remarketing

Cisco’s used-equipment operation authenticates, recertifies switches, routers
By Jim Duffy , Network World , 10/22/2007
  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print

Due to its dominance and ubiquity, Cisco is victimized by counterfeit equipment more than any other network products vendor.


Take a slideshow tour of Cisco Capital Remarketing's facilities.


The company is taking strong measures to counter counterfeiters, such as by educating suppliers and distributors and establishing international investigative teams to hunt them down. But another, less obvious weapon in the vendor’s anticounterfeit arsenal is Cisco’s remarketing operations.

While not a direct combatant against the counterfeiting foe, Cisco Capital Remarketing nonetheless plays a valuable support role for the vendor in its fight against fakery. 

Cisco pitches its remarketing arm as a lower-priced alternative for purchasing Cisco switches, routers and other equipment, and as a trusted counterpart to used equipment brokers. Cisco’s remarketing operations, a business unit within Cisco Capital since 2000, also helps the company protect its intellectual property.

“We are a competitive and trusted alternative when buying new Cisco equipment is not an option,” says Benson Chan, senior manager of worldwide business development for Cisco Capital Remarketing.

Cisco officials would not break out revenue generated from remarketed equipment vs. new products. But the company resold 410,000 units last year, they say.

Cisco usually offers used equipment at 25% off the list price of new gear but with the same warranty. Equipment ships in 24 hours direct to the user or to 40,000 authorized resellers.

Brokers often undercut this price, Cisco admits, but it’s rarely a deal since the product has not undergone Cisco inspection, software updating or certification, Chan says.

So buyer beware.

“We won’t allow it to go into [Cisco’s] SMARTNet [maintenance program] unless Cisco inspects it,” he says.

That’s par for the course for any vendor, analysts say. (Read about how Nortel, Extreme and Foundry are fighting fakes.)

“Recertification is critical if [customers] want to put the equipment back under contract,” says Steve Schuchart of Current Analysis.

Schuchart, a former network architect at a $2.2 billion retailer in the Midwest, says he always bought network equipment new or “unmanaged” — easily discarded if it’s no longer working or required.

For network professionals considering used Cisco gear, Chan says that only Cisco has access to the hardware and software revision history of a product. Cisco maintains a database of engineering change orders (ECO) a Cisco product goes through during its life cycle.

Indeed, if a used Cisco product that’s in seemingly workable condition fails in a network — as was the case recently at a bank — it may be because it is a counterfeit or wasn’t checked against the ECO database and is not up to date on software or hardware revisions, Cisco says.

“I’m amazed at how many of our products fail or need to be revised” when they arrive at Cisco Capital Remarketing, says Senior Director Frank Atter. “So we can’t put them back on the market. It’s a significant amount of risk.”

  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print

Comments (8)
Login
Forgot your account info?

Who gets your used Cisco equipment purchase orders?By Cisco Subnet on October 22, 2007, 5:55 pmDo you buy your used Cisco equipment from the independent secondary market or Cisco Capital Remarketing? Jim Duffy has an in-depth description - including a slideshow...

Reply | Read entire comment

Counterfeit CiscoBy Josh Levitt on October 23, 2007, 9:17 amBuying network hardware through secondary resellers is not a risky endeavor as long as you buy from a qualified reseller. Here is a story I did a few months...

Reply | Read entire comment

25%? Puhleeze.By Anonymous on October 23, 2007, 1:49 pmAll they offer is a 25% discount for used? I already get 38-40% discount on new. If it was 25% off of my already discounted price AND 25% of SmartNET, then you...

Reply | Read entire comment

The LIST price is 25% below new + discount still appliesBy Anonymous on October 24, 2007, 11:27 amHence this is a fantastic deal.... effective to a net discount of approx 60% plus off of new. I hope you are getting a good discount on Smartnet since any items...

Reply | Read entire comment

Don't make me laugh. Cisco does very little to fight fakes!By Joe Turco, President, Optimum Data on October 24, 2007, 12:48 pmI'm the owner of Optimum Data, a $12M (annual sales) used Cisco-based, secondary-market reseller, so please understand that I know what I'm talking about when it...

Reply | Read entire comment

More about eBay 'Chisco' storesBy Cisconet on October 24, 2007, 1:03 pmBrad Reese on Cisco discussed the whole eBay 'Chisco' stores issue here http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/12273

Reply | Read entire comment

View all comments

Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed