After some missteps Cisco has finally released its Linksys One offering – an idea pushed since 2005 as a nod to the little guy, offering small businesses bundled routing, switching, voice, wireless and security gear as a managed service.
As Phil Hochmuth writes in Network world:
The Linksys One idea, originally hatched in the fall of 2005, was to tie specially designed Linksys network, VoIP and security gear to services from carriers. This would allow Cisco to reach the market for sub-50-employee businesses with equipment that could be provisioned and managed remotely by carrier providers.
Although touted as one of Cisco’s Advanced Technologies — a designation tied to an expected, eventual run rate of $1 billion annually — Linksys One stumbled in its first year of trials with large-scale carriers such as MCI. The company has since revamped its lineup of gear and re-targeted the offering at smaller hosted service providers offering bundled Internet, VoIP and other services over broadband links.
Does this package nicely round out Cisco’s offering to small businesses or are there other gaps to fill?
