I remember when some Cisco executives positioned the company as a software vendor, not a hardware vendor - its R&D focused a lot more on IOS and other software than the networking hardware surrounding it. And to a large degree for better, and in some ways for worse (as constant updates could drive networking planners crazy), the software inside Cisco's networking devices has been a product and brand definer. However, I don't believe that anyone in the broader market assumed that Cisco was fundamentally in the business of selling software. From a business-model perspective, if nothing else, such an assumption would have been untrue. The software in Cisco switches and routers was designed to enhance their value as networking infrastructure equipment and to provide capability that was hardware-independent, rather than network-centric.

In parallel, in the past (including the recent past), Cisco has had a less-than-lustrous reputation in network management. This sort of limitation - one not only of product but also of sales, service and overall culture - has seemed to reinforce its hardware centricity. After all, hardware vendors sell "things" and as such tend not to be very good at selling intangibles. In contrast, software vendors sell solutions to enable processes directly impacting how IT lives and works. The sales models, cultural models, customer relationships and services required for the two are poles apart within the IT industry. This is true, interestingly, even when software is housed in hardware. It is even true when software performance is embedded in chips for performance reasons, but the fundamental value proposition is software-centric in benefits and industry relationships. The litmus test in the end isn't packaging, it's primarily the value proposition being sold.

That's why there have been some "jaw-dropping-to-the-floor" moments for me in the past six months, culminating at Cisco's analyst event earlier in December. 

In this column, I'm going to discuss Cisco's newly reshaped initiatives in network management. Cisco's network management team is now richly resourced, committed, and perhaps even more significant - deeply respected -within Cisco. Last week Cisco introduced four new products aimed at enhancing lifecycle performance over the network, coupled with four new services. The collective bundle, labeled the "Network Application Performance Analysis Solution" also includes enhanced versions of three existing products: the Network Analysis Module (NAM) for performance monitoring and troubleshooting; the Cisco NetFlow Collector; and Cisco LAN Management Solution (Resource Manager Essentials) for device configuration and administration. The four new solutions build on these.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.