Carl Russo, Cisco - Captain Carl Part 1
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The Light Reading Interview
In The Spotlight: Carl Russo
Carl Russo knows a bit about pressure. As group vice-president of optical networking at Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), he holds the future of the company in his hands.
The stakes are huge. If he can successfully transform Cisco from enterprise IP routing authority to optical networking powerhouse, he’ll win the respect of his networking contemporaries, the heartfelt thanks of swarms of Cisco shareholders and, quite possibly, the right to succeed John Chambers to the no. 1 spot in the Cisco hierarchy.
But should he fail (gasp!), and Cisco goes the way of Cabletron, 3Com, Madge, and other former networking powers, he will undoubtedly rue the day he took the job. (Win or lose, money isn’t a factor in Russo’s career equation -- he’s already an optical billionaire).
Russo is acknowledged to have made a strong start at Cisco (see Cisco's Optical Shipments Soar ). But there’s a long way to go (see Cisco: Sailing Into Stormy Waters? ).
Light Reading recently sat down with Russo, and his deputy, Joe Bass, vice president and general manager of the optical networking group, to talk about some of the key issues facing Cisco as it runs to the light.
He talked about:
· Cisco’s optical battles
· Component shortages
· Where is that dang Monterey switch, anyway?
· The difference between an outage and an oooooouuuutage
· Why Juniper won’t be bought |
