Well..by now you know my bent...so why even read the post? Well... there is a point...have some patience...
Cisco just released their strategy for SDNs. You can read up many places...check out Light Reading's article:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=221921&f_src=lrdailynewsletter
Cisco has always been a follower... it started out with multi-processor routers (wellfleet was first) and then went to switches (kalpana, grand junction, synoptics, cabletron, etc) and many other product lines.
You might argue, so what...they were not a leader in switching and then became one. While true...there are other factors and I'd suggest that the forces that put Cisco together arent there today. The market has changed and from talking to the VCs I know... for the last years, hardware has been out of vogue. Software is in. Why? Huge returns. And why is that important.. money is going to dump into the market and in a big way to develop network architectures based on just software to build the overlays. I could launch a SDN startup today probably with just $600k or so and quickly build a solution. You could never do that with hardware solution...I'd need $30-60M. (on the low side) So... expect to see a lot of interesting innovation.
I'm also skeptical about Cisco and how they are attacking this. First off..they broke with how they always have launched these efforts... the infamous five phase product launch that mysteriously is always launched in phase 2... giving the illusion they had been planning this all along. I think Cisco has the jitters and is not acting rashly.
Lastly... an API? Really? Not to say that HP is not bringing out APIs, we are. But..they have their place. They are for customers that deeply need to control their network...typically service providers and ultra large scale data centers. The bulk of the market doesnt want this..nor needs...nor could even take advantage of it. They want a controller based solution and orchestration software that allows them to drag and drop deploy networks, applications,and security. They want speed... they want to deploy with more control with less staff. This is fail for Cisco.
While I get why Cisco is going the API route... if they convince customers...those customers are locked into Cisco. Its yet another EIGRP, RPVST, CDP, VTP, SCCP, etc in their back pocket...its not the way the market wants to head. They want better control..and they want commodization of the market.
Cisco just released their strategy for SDNs. You can read up many places...check out Light Reading's article:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=221921&f_src=lrdailynewsletter
Cisco has always been a follower... it started out with multi-processor routers (wellfleet was first) and then went to switches (kalpana, grand junction, synoptics, cabletron, etc) and many other product lines.
You might argue, so what...they were not a leader in switching and then became one. While true...there are other factors and I'd suggest that the forces that put Cisco together arent there today. The market has changed and from talking to the VCs I know... for the last years, hardware has been out of vogue. Software is in. Why? Huge returns. And why is that important.. money is going to dump into the market and in a big way to develop network architectures based on just software to build the overlays. I could launch a SDN startup today probably with just $600k or so and quickly build a solution. You could never do that with hardware solution...I'd need $30-60M. (on the low side) So... expect to see a lot of interesting innovation.
I'm also skeptical about Cisco and how they are attacking this. First off..they broke with how they always have launched these efforts... the infamous five phase product launch that mysteriously is always launched in phase 2... giving the illusion they had been planning this all along. I think Cisco has the jitters and is not acting rashly.
Lastly... an API? Really? Not to say that HP is not bringing out APIs, we are. But..they have their place. They are for customers that deeply need to control their network...typically service providers and ultra large scale data centers. The bulk of the market doesnt want this..nor needs...nor could even take advantage of it. They want a controller based solution and orchestration software that allows them to drag and drop deploy networks, applications,and security. They want speed... they want to deploy with more control with less staff. This is fail for Cisco.
While I get why Cisco is going the API route... if they convince customers...those customers are locked into Cisco. Its yet another EIGRP, RPVST, CDP, VTP, SCCP, etc in their back pocket...its not the way the market wants to head. They want better control..and they want commodization of the market.
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