* NWW router Buyer's Guides spell out Cisco's options as well as its alternatives
In publishing, if readers pass along used copies of our product – either the magazine hardcopy or the online version via links – we consider that a very valuable proposition because we are hitting a wider audience at no extra cost.
Cisco is in a very different boat. In one of this week’s top Network World news stories, Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth writes about how the “gray market” for used Cisco gear is cutting into the router giant’s bottom line, according to Cisco officials at its annual partner Summit in Las Vegas this week (see full story). Cisco claims that this growing submarket for its gear – which is mainly targeted at the SMB segment – is shaving between $200 million and $300 million off of Cisco’s annual revenue.
As a countermeasure to aftermarketers getting a piece of their router pie, Hochmuth reports that “Cisco’s Brand Protection group is revving up an international brand protection campaign, with a simple message for Cisco partners and customers: genuine Cisco gear only comes from Cisco and its partners.”
One very easy way to compare the genuine Cisco article to other new, competitive gear is to use Network World’s Enterprise Core Router Buyer’s Guide or its Access Router Buyer’s Guide. These guides detail the technical specs on dozens of Cisco and competitive offerings in either market segment. Check out these online tools to help you narrow down the router options best suited for your network.
