Sneaky Cisco plots to take over Microsoft's world
Who is Microsoft's biggest competitor? Some say "itself," and with good reason, as Computerworld points out. Microsoft's biggest Windows competitor is pirated Windows.
But there's another company that is increasingly setting its sights on Microsoft, and it's doing so largely unnoticed. The company is networking giant Cisco, which through a mix of open-source software and collaboration technology is launching a credible campaign to deep-six Microsoft's desktop dominance.
In the past year Cisco has acquired PostPath, which enables it to move Exchange users to its Linux-based, drop-in Exchange clone (PDF), and Jabber, which adds presence and instant messaging. It already had WebEx and more, giving Cisco a well-rounded collaboration story that mimics Microsoft in key places, like Exchange/e-mail, but surpasses it in others.
We typically pit Red Hat or IBM against Microsoft, but is Cisco Microsoft's most determined competitor?
It's not just in applications that Cisco increasingly competes with Microsoft. Cisco has been overtly targeting Microsoft with Linux, and has become a top contributor to the Linux kernel. The only thing it lacks is a desktop operating system, but in the cloud-based future that may well be a strength, not a weakness.
I'm not sure how Cisco has managed to fly under the radar for so long, but I imagine Microsoft is keeping a close eye on Cisco. Unlike Intel and others that would like to shed their dependence on Microsoft, Cisco has little need to placate Microsoft, because the bulk of its revenue doesn't depend on Windows. That's a frightening proposition for Microsoft, and one worth watching.
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Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
There are legitimate reasons for all of Cisco's investments that have nothing to do with "owning the desktop". In fact, I would look at "owning the desktop" as a negative these days.
Or that had been the case. Windows techs tend to earn less than a quarter of that for the same job duties.
That sort of support model makes it very very expensive to support in an enterprise enviornment. There was a time when having a Cisco certification meant something, but today it's just paper. I wish they were worth those high numbers again, but times change and you have to adapt to the real world.
They are also priced way higher then they should be. I can buy 90% of the performance that Cisco offers and 200% of the features for 1/5 the price elsewhere.
I know many formerly MS shops that are moving away from MS, and I know lots of formerly Cisco shops as well.
They seem to treat security the same way and act like making their systems a black box will protect them.
There are differences:
Cisco actually makes high quality, reliable products.
Both are in a precarious position right now and Cisco is merely looking for ways to make more money, I doubt they are specifically targeting MS.
I helped design a 10 Gbps MAN that had to virtually extend itself into various networks that ran all sorts of equipment. Cisco was the first company out of the running, and not just because the switch that was 5 times more was bare bones with no layer 3 or QOS, it was all the incompatibilities.
What really ticked me off was that because of BS politics, we had to give them the time of day, lest we make them angry and take it out on the few members that stubbornly stick to this sleazy company. I had to waste a week getting information/quotes and writing up a paper why we couldn't go with them. Ridiculous!
Never had to go through that myself but I know a few people who have.
- by wtfruserious March 10, 2009 10:53 AM PDT
- This starts out talking about the flaws of MS and then assume that when a similar sized company tries to avoid using their products it's an effort to take over said company?
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(12 Comments)I think this article could better be titled as:
Cisco v.s. Microsoft, are they getting a divorce?!?! Do we even care??