Demystifying myths in the networking industry

I have great respect for my previous company, Cisco Systems, and truly believe that the company has successfully brought a disruptive approach of applying network technologies to answer major business challenges.

Working at Cisco was like being conferred with an honorary doctorate from an Ivy League school in engineering, management, leadership and entrepreneurship simultaneously . The experience of working in multiple lines of businesses was helpful in shaping the mindset on how best to manage innovations and productize them so that it was mutually beneficial to the customers and the company. This productization often required an intense validation process, which resulted occasionally in some really cool technology ideas not ever seeing the light of day. Thoughts presented for the rest of this blog are an attempt to share my experience and possibly dispel some myths in the industry.

Myth – One Vendor Can Answer All Networking Requirements

Network vendors for the longest time have enjoyed a monopoly (or duopoly). If an organization had some IT infrastructure requirements, there were a handful of vendors that would satisfy all their needs. This was great for everyone! As a measure of risk mitigation, a famous unwritten policy surfaced that “you would not lose your Continue reading