Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (22927)	2/20/1999 6:49:00 PM
From: David B. Logan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 77400

Hi Frank, I'd like to discuss your following statements: "... the obstacles facing Juniper and the other startups, where the Internet's core technologies are concerned, are now being mitigated to some degree." Hmm... IMHO the biggest problem that all of these startups have is not related to technology, but install base and account control. Next would be market fragmentation by so many companies chasing the same dream... "This is taking place, ostensibly, by new approaches that call for edge-to-edge-directness, bypassing previous constructs where intelligence was embedded in the core. This is known as stupid networking." Are you implying that Juniper's router, et al. are making network edge-to-edge path forwarding decisions, and not relying on upstream/border routers to aggregate paths? (Granted the "edge" here is not really an edge, given where these products are installed). I grant you that within a given transport network most "routing" takes place at the edge (and is really interface/speed conversion) and the middle is going to be some L2-ish technology (SONET, ATM). But, the core of Internet still heavily relies on distributed routing and intelligence. Do you think the 'Net would scale if all the forwarding intelligence was pushed truly to the edges, with no hierarchies for aggregation? Or are you assuming that the core of the 'Net will become much more L2-ish/high speed circuit switching oriented? "While smarts in the core are bering de-emphasized, they are being emphasized and enhanced at the network's edge and at the individual host levels.". What specifically are you referring to? DiffServ or MPLS for QoS? RSVP? RTP? Sorry if this sounds off-thread, but it goes directly towards companies like Juniper's ability to succeed in the market, affects on Cisco, etc. -- Dave Logan

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (22927)	2/20/1999 7:13:00 PM
From: The Phoenix	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Folks, Don't underestimate Juniper. They have great people and good contacts in the industry. Juniper will likely be taken public before they are bought. The JV style of VC in this company makes it a difficult takeover target...it will get interesting. CSCO will need to develop similar technology or buy it. IMO they CSCO will succeed and Juniper will be a flash in the pan...make a few guys lots of money and then be sold off to the highest bidder. By then terrabit routing will be common. OG

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (22927)	2/22/1999 12:09:00 AM
From: Joe S Pack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Frank, This my view on "intelligence at the edge" philosophy. This view is based on the analogy that I draw from computer evolution. In the beginning there was a mainframe and world was concentrated at the center. Some smart(?) guy at the leading mainframe vendor in 60's theorized that computer will be very expensive for ordinary folks and only evolutionary path should be followed is to enlarge machines and attach hundreds of remote terminals and then rent the terminals. What they failed to see was how technology will evolve and make that notion ridiculus after 25 years. The computer took an evolutionary path from mainframe to minis to pc to handhelds. Of course there are business situations where main frame make much sense. But even in those environment the configurations are drastically different than the original model. So what happened within the past 25 years on computer front is a history replete with technology than status quo and so called business smarts. I envision the same evolutionary path on the communications infrastructure. So, more and more intelligence will migrate towards the edge. This evolution will be dictated not only by the technology in communication hardware/software but also to some extent by a lot intelligent and quality sensitive applications at the edge. For example if one wants a certain level of QoS for a particular application, requesting a certain route and QoS and if needed doing own scheduling at the edge may be much easier than having centralized schedular at the core. From business perspective such an evolutionary path will obviously put a lot of pressure on high-margin core players like CSCO. One open question is, can there be a single dominant player at all levels of hierarchy? Or Can there be a king, like Microsoft is for computers, at the edge of the network? Unlike in computer sphere where there was and still is no standard, these are some of the tough questions in an industry where standards still dominate. -Nat