Zoltan,
As we have discussed previously, CSCO is chasing new markets and all does not always go as planned. Execution is the key and hype will get the company nowhere...
Cisco pulls the plug on key WAN switch
Data giant shifts wide-area switching strategy.
By JIM DUFFY
Network World, 05/03/99
SAN JOSE - Cisco has quietly killed its prime
offering for the core of enterprise and service
provider WANs and has delayed delivery of
another WAN switch by about a year.
The developments raise questions about
Cisco's strategy for next-generation WAN
switching and could cost the company business.
Cisco users who were depending on these
products will now have to put their plans on hold,
opt for different Cisco gear, wait for the delayed
products or choose another vendor's switch.
Cisco has halted development of the TGX
8750, an IP and ATM switch for service provider
and enterprise WAN backbones. The TGX
8750 was announced at the ATM Year 98 show
last June (NW, May 25, 1998, page 70).
The switch was supposed to go into field trials
last year and ship this year. Cisco will now offer
its MGX 8850, which is currently positioned as
a service provider edge switch, for the WAN
core, says Don Proctor, director of marketing
for Cisco's Multiservice Switching business unit.
Cisco has also delayed shipment of the IGX
8450, a WAN switch that also combines IP and
ATM switching for enterprise data, voice and
video integration.
The IGX 8450 was supposed to ship in the
fourth quarter of 1998 but won't be available
until this fall, Proctor says (NW, Oct. 5, 1998,
page 12).
Analysts say Cisco could forfeit WAN business
to rivals Ascend and Newbridge Networks, as
well as to the high-speed router start-ups.
"Wow," says Scott Heritage of investment firm
Warburg Dillon Read in New York when told of
the fate of the TGX 8750. "That's not a good
sign. The product looked very promising on the
drawing board, and I was quite optimistic about
it. Obviously, they've been having problems."
"Killing a product like that is significant because
that whole announcement as I recall [positioned
Cisco] far and away ahead of Ascend," says
Rosemary Cochran of market researcher
Vertical Systems Group in Dedham, Mass.
"Very interesting," says Joe Skorupa of
consultancy Ryan, Hankin, Kent in San
Francisco. "I'm not surprised about the 8750.
We never thought it was a serious player at the
core."
The TGX 8750 was a 20G bit/sec optical core
switch intended to deliver broadband IP and
ATM services using Cisco's Tag Switching and
the Internet Engineering Task Force's
Multiprotocol Label Switching technologies.
Cisco designed the TGX 8750 to let users
scale routing to terabit speeds and to bring
OC-48c switching to the core "at a price that
leads the industry," according to a Cisco press
release - $60,000 per OC-48c switch and
$45,000 for channelized OC-48.
Proctor says Cisco killed the switch because
the company couldn't build the product to come
in at those promised prices.
"It proved very difficult to produce one switch
that would meet the enterprise customer's
unique needs and the service provider's unique
needs at the price they expect," Proctor says.
He adds that Cisco's MGX 8850 has more than
enough capacity, density and features to fulfill
both the core and network edge roles in service
provider and enterprise networks.
Cisco delayed the IGX 8450 because it wants
to add voice and virtual trunking capabilities to
the switch. The IGX 8450 is a 3.2G bit/sec IP
and ATM switch that connects LANs, legacy
data, PBXs and video codecs across private
WANs.
The delay will not likely impact IGX user Fleet
Technology Solutions of Albany, N.Y., the IT
division of banking giant Fleet Financial Group
in Boston.
"We've gone through several reorganizations
which have realigned certain resources as well,"
says Thomas Ryan, assistant vice president at
Fleet Technology Solutions. "We've postponed
the integration to a broadband core."
Ryan says he expects to resume that integration
and receive shipment of the IGX 8450 in six
months. |
