Note to Juniper: Wake Up!

If anyone knows how to compete against Cisco, it’s Juniper. Juniper redefined core routing and forced Cisco to re-invent their aging portfolio of core devices. My affection for Juniper runs deep. From the outside, I marveled at their ASIC designs, the elegance of JUNOS, and the sheer power of their devices. From the inside, I learned first-hand how talent, hard-work, and passion for an alternative vision of networking can lead a company to not only battle but win against Cisco.

However, since Juniper’s acquisition of NetScreen in February of 2004, and subsequently their yearning for a piece of the Enterprise pie, Juniper is beginning to resemble a long list of Cisco challengers. As Benjamin Franklin said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Unlike Cisco, Juniper has been either resistant or hesitant to complete their portfolio via acquisition. For example, while Juniper was in dire need of a switch they chose to develop it internally rather than purchase companies like Foundry or Extreme. Subsequently, Juniper has been forced into a best-of-breed scenario whereby they partner with other companies to provide end-to-end solutions. One such example is their partnership with IBM.

Meanwhile, both Cisco and HP are driving towards a one-stop-shop model of providing all the hardware, software, and services required to implement and maintain their respective solutions. Given the success rate of this strategy, IBM may be forced to join Cisco and HP. The danger to Juniper is they simply cannot match the Enterprise reach of these massive companies or the breadth of solutions they offer.

Finally, Juniper is light on public/private cloud computing solutions. Juniper needs to evaluate storage networking, an answer to Cisco’s UCS vision, virtualization, and management solutions. Of course Juniper touts their Stratus Project and just signed another OEM relationship with Dell to team on data center technology. However, Juniper has done this before; remember the Infranet?

In the end, Juniper may end-up being purchased by Dell or IBM. Or, Juniper can get back to their roots by innovating and disrupting the market. Why follow Cisco and HP’s lead? Offer a viable alternative to their strategies. Develop, market, and deploy a real datacenter fabric built on Ethernet and chalk filled with MPLS. Create a new type of Router that can handle the shear speed, QoS, and security requirements of the next generation backbone.

Come on Juniper, Wake Up!

AT&T & iPhone: “Can you hear me now?”

AT&T Wireless has become the company that we love to hate.  After-all, they are the 2^nd largest wireless carrier in the United States and maintain exclusive rights to the Apple iPhone.  Furthermore, we are bombarded by advertisements from Verizon poking fun at AT&T with their clever “can you hear me now” advertisements based on the quality of their wireless network.  How can poor AT&T even dream to compete against Verizon?  For goodness sakes, Verizon scared Sprint right out of the core network business.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a currently an AT&T wireless customer and I am completely addicted to my Apple iPhone 3G.  Like many iPhone users, I find myself using the “phone” less and less and instead rely on AT&T’s 3G network for data transmissions.  For me, the iPhone is an extension, and in some cases a replacement, for my laptop.  While I have experienced issues with both Apple’s software and the AT&T network, I understand AT&T’s challenges and I am thankful they are spending both the time and money to correct those issues.  Is Verizon’s network up to the iPhone challenge?

It is time to find out the answer to that question.  I propose that AT&T renegotiate the terms of their exclusivity agreement with Apple to allow Verizon to offer the iPhone on their network.  AT&T would maintain exclusive rights to all next generation iPhone models (4G, 5G …) for x number of months.  This would allow AT&T to keep a competitive edge on Verizon while giving consumers greater choice and providing Apple access to the number one wireless provider in the United States.

Additionally, it has the potential to bring Verizon’s network to its knees.  While Verizon’s network is impressive, it has never seen anything like the traffic iPhone users generate.  Verizon would be saddled with the same growing pains that AT&T experienced with one difference, “can you hear me now.”  Initially, Verizon would gain some high volume customers from AT&T while watching a significant percentage of their base switch to the iPhone.  Let’s face it; Verizon’s phones are boring at best.

After this initial spike in subscribers, the real fun begins.  Verizon’s iPhone users will begin to complain about similar issues to the ones that AT&T users have experienced; poor battery life, dropped calls, no rings, slow network, no network available, no data available, and more.  Verizon’s customer care will see their call volumes spike and their customer satisfaction numbers will fall.  Finally, “can you hear me now” will become a thing of the past and we’ll see Verizon’s CEO walking through the park apologizing and promising they can do better.

Finally, the emperor will have no clothes and all eyes will be focused squarely on Apple.  Apple will be forced to clean-up their act by providing more reliable software and introducing better hardware in their newest iPhone models.  Who does that benefit the most? AT&T (see above exclusivity agreement).  In the meantime, AT&T will have spent billions of dollars upgrading their network using the lessons they have learned to provide a superior experience via their network.

“Can you hear me now?”

Is Cisco for or against automation?

Cisco has long understood the need to market to the Executive/Board Room as-well-as to the Network Engineer; Wall Street and Main Street.  Throughout the years, we have watched John Chambers and company move from an obscure little company to the bell weather of high technology.  Additionally, we have watched Cisco’s certification program move from an obscure “nice to have” to the gold standard of networking professionals.

Today, Cisco Certified X (CCx) is not only obtained by network engineers, but by sales, marketing, and other executives alike.  Why?  Simply put, CCx materials give individuals an excellent education on just about any modern day network infrastructure; routing, switching, cable infrastructure, and more.  Whether or not you take the test is usually based on career/industry advancement (who pays) as well as personal preference toward certifications.

Of course, Juniper Networks has a program of their own and offers a demanding certification called Juniper Networks Certified x (JNCx).  However, Juniper does not have the breadth and depth of products or the market penetration of Cisco, particularly in the enterprise.

The brilliance of Cisco’s certification program is twofold; it gives network engineers a career path and it provides Cisco an army of loyal and trained users.  Resellers and Customers were willing participants in training thousands of network professionals proudly displaying their CCx’s on desks and resumes.  In fact, some companies base career advancement, bonuses, and salary grades on the level of certification that one obtains.  A byproduct of this has been the elevation of Cisco’s IOS CLI to the standard of networking devices; a fact that Juniper continues to fight everyday with JUNOS.   In-turn, this creates bias and a competitive advantage for Cisco vs. competing devices because it’s “just IOS or an IOS derivative” and I know that already.

Today, the winds of change may be blowing as Companies are realizing the economic impact of this system.  In a way, organizations around the world have subsidized Cisco’s growth by providing the means for their staff to become a CCx to the detriment of their bottom line.  This includes hiring of individuals with top-of-the-line CCx certifications, paying for training, paying for tests, promotions, and losing certified individuals to rivals or other organizations.

Compounding the need for CCx or JNCx certifications is the utter lack of automation within the networking industry.  Enterprise Management Systems are inadequate, PERL (the adopted language of networking) knowledge is not easy to find and a bit too powerful for many and third party Network Change and Configuration systems are fighting the commodity label.

In a world where the ratio of network engineers to network devices is ever increasing and the notion of single-vendor (Cisco Powered) deployments is losing steam, why do we accept the idea that manual intervention is the best way to manage our networks?  Why are CCx or JNCx working on less complex activities?   Why are operations personnel beholden to the networking engineering teams?  What good are BPM and BRE if the end result is a human rather than an automated action?  Why allow a PERL developer to be in command of complex changes without guardrails, auditing trails, or (in some cases) networking skills.

Companies are beginning to realize that automation within networking will improve operational efficiencies, reduced downtime, improve SLAs, and reduce MTTR.  They are awakening to the fact that the best use of a CCx is not to be turning up or down ports or building initial configurations; instead it is performing advanced troubleshooting, deployment, or visionary functions.

Automation is paramount to cloud computing, PAAS, SAAS, or whatever else you want to call it.  We can no longer allow networking, or storage, to be the last bastion of manual over automated management.  For a datacenter to be truly cloud-like, most activities across the OSI stack must be automated.   Perhaps, networking is the most important piece as without it nothing works.

It is time for Cisco to get serious about network, storage, server, and security automation.   What happened to the early ideas of a self-managing, self-healing, self-defending network?  If Cisco wants to transform itself into a software company, then transform network management into true network automation.

Why Cisco should fear HP

Earlier this year, Cisco made headlines with their UCS B-Series Blade Servers.  They followed this up with the Nexus 1000v and several other announcements including a partnership with BMC.  At the time I called this announcement a letdown as I hoped that Cisco would re-invent the server market turning it a new “servernet” device.

Today, HP announced the availability of the ProCurve 6120 series Blade Switch integrated with the BladeSystem cClass infrastructure.  This is a significant announcement from HP and one that heightens their war with Cisco.  Doesn’t Cisco make a 3200 for HP c-Class BladeSystems?

In yet another fracture between HP and Cisco, HP now has the capabilities and product offerings to steal Cisco’s UC thunder.  In fact, one could argue that HP has a stronger position within this market as they have servers, storage, networking, management, and service capabilities all wrapped in an HP bow.

To date, Cisco has been battling smaller rivals for dominance in the Enterprise; Juniper, Brocade, Enterasys, 3Com, and more.  However, this fight has been on Cisco’s turf; networking.  Today, Cisco is fighting equal or larger rivals in the Enterprise; HP, IBM (OEMs), and others.  However, this fight is on foreign soil that Cisco has no base of operation; servers.

Until IBM decides to get back into networking by purchasing Juniper, Brocade, or both, HP remains Cisco’s number one challenge.  Cisco relies on HP on many fronts of which I’ll highlight two points; to re-sell Cisco hardware and to OEM HP’s Network Management Software called Network Compliance Manager.  The importance of re-selling of Cisco hardware is self-evident but what about the OEM relationship?

The key to UC is management.  In fact the key to cloud computing, virtualization, PAAS, SAAS, or whatever you want to call it is management.  While HP has a strong offering of management software, Cisco continues to rely on OEMs or partnerships to fill this gap.  What’s wrong with this strategy?  Simply put, if you are going to push a vision you better be able to support the vision.  VMware has awoken to this fact and is finally pushing aggressively into virtualization management.  So too will Cisco, as they cannot continue to make management the “red-headed step-child” of their billion dollar empire.  Eventually, Cisco will need to either purchase BMC or home-grow a real solution.

Mark Hurd, CEO and Chairman of the Board of HP, has definitely proven to the world that he plays to win.  As Hurd and his team aggressively integrate HP into a Unified Powerhouse (UP), Cisco’s Unifed Communications (UC) is well within their cross-hairs.  With any infection point of technology comes a changing of the guard, will UC be Cisco’s un-doing?

As a reader of Platen, you know the respect and admiration I have for John Chambers and his leadership.  However, if I were Cisco I’d stop battling Apple and Kodak and start making their UC strategy a reality.

VMware and SpringSource; Getting Warmer

VMware announced the acquisition of SpringSource for a total of around $420 million. SpringSource provides a opensource Java development platform but they also own Hyperic an opensource management platform; a fact that is being virtually ignored by the mainstream media.

While SpringSource’s Java development platform is “interesting”, nobody gets rich selling or supporting a development environment. However, what’s more interesting is SpringSource’s vision of Building, Managing, and Running applications; one of the driving forces behind their purchase of Hyperic.

Take this vision and expand it into VMware. SpringSource will build the applications, vShere will run the applications, and a combination of Hyperic and VMware will manage the applications. Sadly, Hyperic will not solve all of VMware’s management problems, but it’s a move in the right direction.

There are two fundamental risks with this strategy; VMware’s continued reliance on Java (Oracle) for Platform-as-a-Service (PAAS) and VMware’s commitment to opensource. While Java is a wonderful platform, there are questions regarding its future as well as new and more modern platforms that are challenging its dominance.

While VMware claims to maintain a long history of support for opensource, its more of a self-serving position. With this acquisition, VMware has not only acquired a company but a community of users and developers. With a strong opensource challenge from Oracle/SUN, VMware would smart to harness this community asset rather than turn them into a newfound liability.

Aside from the fact that VMware may have overpaid for SprngSource (especially in this economy), SpringSource/VMware makes sense for both companies. VMware is getting a little warmer on their quest to becoming a datacenter powerhouse.

One word of caution: all companies, VMware, Oracle, Sun, Citrix, IBM, BMC, HP, CA, and more are vulnerable until a new paradigm of management is brought forward. Management cannot continue to be an afterthought and a “central brain” is needed to make cloud computing a reality.

Riddle Me This: Cloud Sprawl

Riddle me this: Imagine taking a dollar bill and cutting it up into four pieces. Each piece is placed inside different containers that are identical. Carry the 4 containers together in a bag and their total value remains $1. Now, take a second dollar bill and cut it into four pieces making sure they are the same dimensions as the first one and put it into 4 identical containers to the first batch. Place the 4 new containers in the same back and shake. All eight containers have a value of $2. Next, each into the bag and throw out one of the containers. The value of all 7 containers is now only $1 yet you have 3 extra containers. Finally, throw out the 3 remaining pieces from the original dollar bill that is missing a piece inside the bag.

Extra credit: Multiply the above riddle by 1000 and repeat.

Extra Extra Credit: Do the above with a mix of $1s, $5s, $10s, $20s, and $100s.

This is Cloud Sprawl and today this is an impossible task. Cloud Sprawl includes remnants from virtual machines, data, users, storage blocks, acls, firewall rules, vpns, passwords, and more.

What’s the answer to Cloud Sprawl? A new management paradigm. A move away from the after-thought that is server, storage, security, and network management. A move away from wrap-and-roll buying decisions. A move away from the hype that is today while building a real plan to get there tomorrow.

Android in the Enterprise: Forget About It

Google has announced their intentions to add “enterprise features” into Android OS beginning with the ability to synchronize with Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar. Are you kidding me?

First, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar are not enterprise-class applications. As an enterprise user of all three applications, I find them slow and light-years behind Microsoft Exchange/Office and even Open-Xchagne/OpenOffice.

Second, can you trust Android OS in the enterprise? If Google’s entire business model is based on advertising and data mining, what security risks does Android OS pose? RIM has spend years building up corporate trust and security controls that have proven themselves within the enterprise. With all Apple’s success, they have struggled to make deep inroads against RIM. Google will face the same challenges and more.

Borrowing the words of Donnie Brasco, Google….”Forget about it.”

Services for Advertising; A Growing Evil

It is time for we the people, to rise up against the Internet revolution’s disregard for privacy and lust for advertising. The Internet is a wonderful creation of human ingenuity. It connects us together and makes the world a little smaller, bringing together the human race as one. Facebook’s success is a testament to the desire of human beings to be and/or stay connected. Twitter is a lesson in voyeurism, allowing us to confirm that we are normal.

However, the Internet has a growing force of Evil that must be stopped; advertising. While advertising has been around “forever”, it has never been this focused or intrusive. The secret, is the middlemen crave as much information about us as possible in order to demand the highest price for ad placements. Name, address, phone, number, likes, dislikes, moods, emails, searches, posts, IMs, texts, places you go, people you see, worries, whereabouts, past purchases, wish lists, etc. are being stored on massive data warehouses where it is analyzed by sophisticated algorithms all in the name of ads.

While Google is the biggest of these middlemen, Facebook is rapidly becoming even stronger. Why? Well, Google learned from Yahoo that services (Mail, IM, etc.) simply do not generate enough revenue; advertising does. They have parlayed this one idea into a $135 Billion company. However, there is a limit to what Google can collect with their current services. That’s why they need to expand beyond the web to OSs such as Android and Chrome OS.

Meanwhile, millions of Facebook users willingly give up their personal information everyday. This allows Facebook to understand the pulse of the nation and world long before the polls can be tabulated. Your “friends” create intricate relationships on many levels that can be analyzed to detect patterns and buying criteria. Every link, every quiz, every note, every piece of flair, says something about you. The more they know, the more valuable the ads. I venture to say that Facebook has a chance to become bigger than Google; now that’s saying something.

Why is this so bad? It’s actually scary on two fronts. One, there is no way to opt-out of the system. In fact, it has become systemic; click-through agreements anyone? Where is the line? When do things get deleted? Are we being profiled? What if I don’t want my emails read by a computer? I don’t want my phone conversations scanned?

Two, I worry that the model is giving us the rope to hang ourselves. We are trading services for information and information for advertising. However, are we giving up too much of ourselves for the sake of free? Are we creating goods? Is the end result a few billionaires and some millionaires or an engine for economic growth?

In-the-end, Internet advertising is not going anywhere. In fact, the traditional media advertising giants are aggressively moving into this arena. The great IP convergence of Phone (VOIP), Internet, IPTV, Mobile Phone and Data, Games, and more, combined with the death of newspapers, magazines, and traditional television have made this a necessity. It is time for us to demand limits, transparency, and accountability for this new order of services for advertising.

Never forget the power we, the People, have because while they control the services and advertising, we control the power to say no. Without us the services will shutter and the advertising revenue will dry up leaving a wasteland of electronic trash.

Forget Google Chrome OS: Root for Microsoft, Apple, and Linux

Yesterday, Google announced their intention to release a new operating system designed primarily for Netbooks.  The new operating system, Chrome OS, will now compete against established Linux vendors as well as Microsoft for market and mind share.  While the initial reactions to this announcement were positive, I have a different spin.

This announcement underscores a major challenge at Google; they are a “one trick pony”.  Google is simply a giant advertising machine that needs critical inputs regarding our personal information to better serve their advertising clients.  While many individuals cling to an unhealthy affection towards Google, the truth is Google provides its services, search, mail, calendar, gears, etc. not for the sake of good, but for the sake of money.

At first, Google was satisfied with the collection of information via third party web browsers such as Firefox and IE.  However, their hunger for personal information led them to release an even more intrusive technology; the Chrome browser.  Now they crave even more information that can only be obtained via having access to everything; the Operating System.  By collecting all this personal information, whether it is scrubbed or not, Google can better profile its users and charge more to its advertisers.  It’s not simply a numbers game any longer as the quality of the information about your user population is as, if not more, important then the quantity; a lesson Facebook plays perfectly.

I’m rooting for Microsoft, Apple, and Linux to put Google’s Chrome OS back in its preverbal box. Google can keep Android, Chrome, Desktop Search, and anything else they desire to load on my personal computers to themselves.  Does anyone seriously think Microsoft did not see this coming?  If Apple released OS XI generically, would anyone care about Chrome OS?  Will Chrome OS make a dent in the fiercely loyal and growing Ubuntu population?

Google’s corporate motto may say “Don’t be evil”, but that’s like the pot calling the kettle black.  One person’s road to Evil is another one’s road to riches.

Google gets the Hype; Oracle and IBM get the Business

Google announced a new on-line database called Fusion Tables using technology they acquired from Transformic.  Transformic pioneered the use of data-spaces; a technology that has been around since the early 1990s.  Unfortunately, this technology was “useless” until the great brains at Google got their hands on it and now it’s going to shake up the entire database market.

It obvious to some writers and analysts, that Google has better talent than Oracle and IBM combined.  After-all, they now have data-spaces and Fusion.  Does Oracle or IBM have this? Wait, Oracle has Fusion; are we looking at a lawsuit? What about Teradata or Aster Data or Greenplum, or Postgress, or MySQL, or Netezza, or EnterpriseDB, do they have it?  If Google has it you can bet it’s better than everyone else’s.

Why is it that Google can do no wrong?  Search, Adds, Maps, Email, IM, Calendar, Web Sites, Phones,  Free Lunches, Video, Blogs, Free Dinners, Databases, Home Power Management, and, let’s all keep our fingers crossed, Netbooks.  Google should just buy Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle outright and put them out of their misery.

Let’s get the facts straight.  Oracle and IBM are dynamic companies that rule the database market.  In fact, Oracle and IBM have diversified products and services that are helping them through this tough economy.  Additionally, they have advanced R&D, patents, deep pockets, and access to the world’s largest and most powerful enterprises.  Finally, they are keenly aware of cloud computing and what that means to their businesses; i.e. databases.

Google has Advertisements.  While Ads are a great thing, hopefully one day people will rise up and say enough.  Enough profiling, enough storing information, enough analysis, enough of collecting personal data, enough, enough, enough.   Perhaps Google should look to improve their core businesses because the competition is heating up for Search and Ads.

Google get’s the hype; Oracle and IBM get the business.