* Cisco's move into network, application performance management raises the question of gear vs. software
Cisco’s news last week that it would enter the network and application performance management software market got me thinking. The network equipment vendor had already made clear the strategy it planned to take, but it wasn’t until recently that the plans were made public. And Cisco clearly has a much larger target than just network and application performance management.
In conjunction with its Network Application Performance Analysis (NAPA) product release, Cisco also discussed a higher level of product functionality that it hopes to achieve in the coming year and beyond. Dubbed SONA, or Cisco’s Services Oriented Network Architecture plan, Cisco intends to provide the network that will run all critical applications in next-generation data centers.
The vendor has long been telling me that it will provide the intelligent network management features needed to enable data center automation in cross-platform environments, but honestly until recently I thought Cisco’s plans had mostly to do with Cisco. Now with its acquisition of technologies from Sheer Networks and Topspin Communications, I can start to see how the networking gear vendor could compete with management software makers such as CA, BMC, HP and IBM.
What remains to be seen is how Cisco will transition from helping its customers better manage their Cisco infrastructure to helping new customers start to adopt a more intelligent network. Cisco competitors, such as Extreme Networks, also deliver monitoring services for their gear, but can gear makers elevate themselves above feeds and speeds to understand how a dynamic data center will need to configured to operate in a more automated manner? This coming year may reveal which equipment makers can bridge the gap between their gear and management software, without alienating partners or customers.
