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Network Dictionary – ABC (Anything but Cisco)

16th October 2009 By 9 Comments


Term used by sales folks, both at Cisco and at resellers, to describe those companies that have an “Anything But Cisco” policy.

There are quite a few people who have a bias against the biggest / largest / popular / leader in any market and in the networking market, Cisco is no different. Typically led by someone who has a lasting grudge or bitterness against Cisco ((and growing these days as Cisco appears to mistreat their staff as standard practice)) and will look for any product that is specifically not Cisco to purchase in a given market.

These people have been buying Nortel, 3Com, Extreme, HP and Foundry switches, Checkpoint/Nokia firewalls, and other odd pieces of kit that have quirky and immature capabilities and spend a lot of time fixing these things.

Personally, I am sympathetic to the idea, and believe that big parts of Cisco’s product portfolio is junk (for example: IP Telephony, Video Conferencing, NAC and WAAS for starters), but swinging to the other extreme is failing to recognise what Cisco does well…… routers and switches.

I take a pragmatic approach, and evaluate products on their merit, but tend to stick with Cisco for core technologies. I wouldn’t go completely to an anti-Cisco stance, that’s going to cause yourself a lot of problems. And who needs that….

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About Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus

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  • http://www.apeman.org/ apeman

    I’ve been installing more and more Juniper Networks gear in my Data Centre. We used to be an exclusive Cisco shop, but Cisco has lost their competitive advantage in the ISP sector.

    • http://etherealmind.com Greg Ferro

      Probably largely due to to how “excellent” the Cisco 7600 has been. No one wants to buy a more expensive C6500, that has more problems and less features.

  • http://www.3fives.com/ IPv6Freely

    The biggest reason for being an ABC company is one you left out/forgot about/didn’t realize… and that’s that there is no money to be made in being a Cisco reseller.

    Most ABC companies will support Cisco networks (as they can still make money doing that), but ABC companies often do not push the sales of Cisco products because, as somebody once said: “Why make decent money, when you can make excellent money?”

    Also, to say that these people are bitter or holding a grudge is absolutely ridiculous. Not to mention your claim that ABC companies purchase other vendors’ products and spend a lot of time fixing them is absolutely incorrect. One example of an ABC company is one who specializes in Juniper, Avaya, and Aruba – all of which are arguably better than Cisco in their respective product lineup.

    Unless your network ‘dictionary’ entries are meant to be comical (I’m really not sure), or satirical, you might want to tone down the ignorance and bias a little bit.

    • http://etherealmind.com Greg Ferro

      1) the term is used by Cisco and its resellers. I didn’t make it up. It’s derogatory by its source.

      2) Resellers don’t make money from selling Cisco. Neither does a typical supermarket make money from selling milk. It’s called a “loss leader” to sell through to other products. Also, I don’t recommend you work for a reseller for the same reason.

      3) If you live in a glass house don’t throw stones. That website of yours has a touch of ego trip on the front page there, you might want to tone down the ignorance and bias of that too.

      4) If you can’t detect humour or sarcasm in the Network Dictionary, you need to do some work on yourself. Of course it’s meant to be odd / offbeat / unusual. Goodness knows there is too much pomposity in the networking industry already.

      Thanks for commenting though. I absolutely welcome comments that tell me I’m being an idiot. Helps to keep me focusses.

      • http://www.3fives.com/ IPv6Freely

        See now you’re just making stuff up.

        • http://etherealmind.com Greg Ferro

          Of course :-) . This isn’t always “journalism” it’s a blog. Sometimes it’s my opinion. You gave me your opinion, which I respect, and I give you mine.

  • Hisham Jameel

    hi, i wishing u best in dat to day activities. pls help me with network dictionaries in oder of my current study carrier in networking, that’s CCNA successfully. thank you.

  • Shmenge

    What do you mean when you say Cisco IP Telephony is junk?
    Can you provide any supporting documentation?