* David and Goliath responses
Over the past few newsletters, we’ve been asking where the David is to Cisco’s Goliath. We’ve received several responses from readers and we’ll share a few of those today.
Over the past few newsletters (see the first two here and here), we’ve been asking where the David is to Cisco’s Goliath. We’ve received several responses from readers and we’ll share a few of those today.
A post at the newsletter archives states: “I have operated in the networking space for over 10 years now and I have never seen a company that even gets close to Cisco for attempting innovation, holding onto client mind share and developing long-term, strategic partnerships.”
This partnership approach is echoed by Phil Ardire of Western Datacomm, who wrote: “One of the ways Cisco stays on top of the internetworking business is working with companies like Western DataCom as a Hardware Developer (HD) partner. In 1999, Western DataCom developed an encryption Router for NASA. In 2001 Cisco introduced the 3200 Series Mobile Access Router and approached Western DataCom to develop an IP encryptor to complement this 3200 Series Router. Over the past seven years Western DataCom has continued to develop products with Cisco’s marketing and technology cooperation and this business will amount to $20 million in 2008. Western DataCom decided to not continue to compete with Cisco in the router business after 2001. So did David lose or win this battle?”
The original poster continued: “These guys are the kings of spin. They have created some great solutions along the way. Their routing and switching platforms can be trusted. They may not have the best product, but as an all-round business they are hard to beat.”
In fact, if and when David comes along, the game might have to change from networking in an unexpected manner. Alan Shimel wrote at the archive site: “I think the issue is not who is the next David but what does he use for a slingshot. Like the original David, the Cisco killer will not come out of the pack of usual suspects, but will be a new young unexpected usurper. If and when it happens, he will truly deserve to be a king.” Go here for more of Alan’s comments.
Let us keep hearing from you on this subject. I’m sure that you’ll be hearing more from us. For more Cisco-related discussions, check out Network World’s Cisco Subnet, the independent community for Cisco customers.
