<venerable Cisco, New Corebuilder 9000 moves COMS ahead of the competition>
had been saying this all along 4-5 weeks ago. Competition is really getting their products squareley aimed at csco and they're really good. COMS for one, ASND with 550, FORE with ASX4000 (both 550 and 4000 have much better performance and much much better scalability than old BPXs), Xyln with their upcoming 160GB Router-switch.
Adding to this is the GB startups that are stealing revenue away from CSCO. One will be surprised how many Corporations have migrated to the cheap load-balancing and high performance GB swicthes from startups such as Extreme, Foundry and Packet Engines.
And, if these are not enough, the telecom King Kongs such as LU and NT are ready to battle with the Godzilla in data networking world. LU witheir PacketStar 40-60GB IP Router switch, PortMaster 4 Remote Access Controller and NT with their Aptix RAC products and the whole BAY arsenal.
And then there are more, the European telecom giants are also eyeying the data networking world and are ready to give CSCO a tough sell in the European mkt. Alcatel with GB acquisition, and Ericsson with the ACC acquistion.
CSCO, based on these actual facts, IMO is at a critical juncture right now, this qtr may be OK but going forward one has to really think about their valuation, and the question of can csco still maintain their competitive edge. |
