CSCO's IOS - Creaking with Age ?
Khan,
Could this 'Creaking with Age' sort of thing be why NT has chosen to standardize on WIND ?
Any guesses as to who might be next ?
--alan
From Business Week
businessweek.com
> CAN'T PLEASE EVERYBODY. Here's the problem: Although Cisco prides itself on
> its comprehensive software, what it has to offer holds only limited appeal to
> providers of optical machinery. To understand why, turn back the clock to the
> early '90s, when Cisco created a software-management system called IOS
> (Internet Operating System).
> IOS is one of the main reasons why Cisco was able to turn its acquisitions'
> technologies very quickly into profits. Because IOS was so modular and easy to
> program, a new product could be ported to it in a matter of weeks. By
> comparison, it took years before 3Com (COMS ) finally had a unified software
> structure that oversaw the products of its disastrous acquisition, US
> Robotics.
> But IOS loses its value when those products are used on a network in
> conjunction with competitors' technology. Cisco's primary customer base is the
> so-called enterprise community, better known as large corporations. When
> building a network, these clients like to deal with one vendor and, as a
> general rule, will be glad to buy all the pieces from one supplier like Cisco.
> "CREAKING WITH AGE." Telecom companies, on the other hand, want to assemble
> their networks component-by-component, and they have no interest in overseeing
> a voice-and-data system that serves, say, a million people with another
> company's proprietary software. "IOS is creaking with age," says Johnson. "It
> works in the enterprise space and nowhere else." |
