Gary,
I will be 100% completely honest. I will tell you my experience in dealing with many sizes of organizations - many of which are Fortune 100 companies. I have performed several Distributed Networking Strategic Planning processes with IT Directors and senior staff.
I can tell you with almost 90% confidence that 9 companies out of 10 who have both an entrenched DS and an entrenched router/switching product platform (lets be honest on what Cisco provides for most companies - basic routers and switching technology - not an overall netowrk) will select the Directory Service!
I dont know how I can explain it to you if you dont have an appreciation as to the shier scope of a DS vs a Router/switch technology. A Directory Service provides an organization an overall central co-ordination of ALL IT INFRACTRUCTURE, APPLICATIONS, ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES, and BUSINESS LOGIC! From one central directory, a person can easily control a users access rights to: an application, to sites on the internet, to Mainframe/Midrange systems, to File/Print services, to remote dialin, to messaging, to access in other areas on the network, etc. etc. etc.
The DS also becomes a storage of organizational components. It would store detailed information on users (phone, email address, employee number, restrictions to other business objects, etc.), servers, routers, PC devices, printers, geographic locations, groups, etc.
Basically, everything that is a unique component (both technically and organizationally) in your business can become an object in the Directory Service.
And lets get this out right here and now - NDS is the clear market leader in Directory Services. Currently there is not even anyone that is close. I challenge you to name any other DS vendor that is even close to NDS which has an estimated 40 million licensed users and growing fast with the recent release of NetWare5 and the soon to be released NDSforNT V.2 in a couple weeks.
I am very sure of the following statistic. MSFT's Active Directory has approximately 0% marketshare.
Now, put this in perspective with what Cisco will offer the companies that are already well entrenched in NDS. they have made this huge commitment to integrate all their IT and business components into a common managed DS and then Cisco is going to walk in and convince this company to throw away ALL their integration investment so that they can maintain a Cisco router or switch technology? I DONT THINK SO!! How loyal do you really think an IT shop is?
Cisco is easily the market leader in network hardware infrastructure, but when push comes to shove, if I were an IT director or Network Architect, I know that I would rather mix and match router vendors (or even migrate over to an NDS-aware router/switch) than to destroy my centralized overall DS structure simply to ensure I maintain a Cisco-only technology.
Cisco has a lot of large-scale competitors and turn-on-a-dime upstarts that are proving to the IT industry that Cisco's price premium is not acceptable anymore. If Cisco's arrogance and "I'm the best and you must follow me" attitude continues, Cisco will not be the leader vendor for long.
So bottom line...
Cisco is putting all its horses on a DS that currently has 0% marketshare and will be completely immature! Meanwhile, more and more of its competitors are realizing that they must make commitments to a DS that has 5+ years of development maturity and is now experiencing strong ISV and IT OEM commitment growth.
Cisco provides a small vertical technology piece to the overall IT technology inventory and business services that any customer IT shop provides its business units. A DS like NDS can manage and control a vast majority of IT technology inventory and business services.
You be honest now - which would you pull out if you were a CIO - a DS like NDS or some Cisco routers/switches?
Toy |
