I’m not a big fan “top reasons to do x, or fix y” but I decided to go against my better judgment and publish three ways Dell can shake-up the industry.

One: BE DELL

Dell is a successful company that revolutionized IT by providing equal to superior products at a lower price while providing excellent customer support and service. Dell seized the opportunity to partner with companies like EMC to expand their footprint while continuing pushing costs down. Somewhere along the line, between AMD and Blade Servers, the competition caught-up and began to fight fire with fire. Meanwhile, Dell was left “Dell-less” and flat-footed; no longer nimble enough to change from the cha-cha to the tango.

Dell must make a critical choice; blaze their own path within this datacenter/cloud computing mess or follow HP, Cisco, and others. Currently, Dell has chosen the latter and has aggressively partnered with Juniper, Brocade, and others to attempt to match their rivals (similar to IBM’s strategy minus the power of IBM Global Services). Additionally, Dell continues to evangelize the concept of OPEN IT infrastructure. Ah, the old OPEN vs. Proprietary argument; does it hold water in the enterprise? Finally, Dell purchased Perot Systems as their long awaited entrance into services.

All these moves, while necessary, do not play to Dell’s core strengths. Why not use the vaunted Dell manufacturing capability to commoditize next generation hardware faster than the competition can recoup their costs; Cisco has spent millions on R&D and software development while HP has spent billions on R&D and acquiring complementary technology companies. If Dell could build a UCS-B/Nexus look alike with equal to superior performance at a lower price, then they could dominate the market.

Two: Public Clouds Need Not Apply

While the idea of public clouds is intellectually enticing, the reality is the money lies within private clouds. Does Google build their cloud infrastructure on commercial hardware from Dell, HP, IBM, etc.? By their very nature, public clouds are singular in nature; search, virtualization, CRM, etc. They require fine tuned operating systems and management capabilities that are linked to CPU, memory, power, and disk. In other words, go directly to the component manufacturers and build what you need. If something fails, weigh the cost of replacement vs. leaving it in place.

Private clouds require a delicate balance of performance, reliability, and management. Very few enterprises will entertain the notion of building their own hardware as they want the peace-of-mind and backing of giant corporations such as Dell. To capitalize on private clouds, Dell must blaze of new trail by concentrating on security, performance, reliability, management, and ROI.

How does Dell accomplish this? By calling BS on the current state of private clouds and offering real solutions to current challenges. How? Don’t just take tired old tools form 3^rd party ISVs and announce that you have a cloud computing management strategy. Understand that cloud computing requires new paradigms within security, storage, networking, and compute power.

Three: Open Source Hardware

Open Source Hardware is a reactively obscure concept. Per Wikipedia, “Open Source Hardware is designed and offered in the same manner as free and open source software.” While HP Labs has dabbled within Open Source Hardware, Dell has the opportunity to take the lead.

Dell could offer a full line of Open Source Hardware publishing full hardware specifications as well as the software that runs these machines. Dell Laps and Open Source Division could work with customers to build cost effective systems. This is very similar to what they have done within their white label division; see Aster Data.

Wait, didn’t you say most customers won’t build their own hardware? Just because it is open source does not mean everyone will take advantage of this nor does it mean a lack of revenues; see Novell, Red Hat, etc. By publishing detailed specs and code, Dell becomes a revolutionary and IT professionals can finally make informed decisions. They may choose to have Dell build the systems, build them themselves, or purchase from a competitor. However, the thought leadership and vision comes from Dell

One area of low hanging fruit for Open Source Hardware seems to reside within storage. Rather than purchase expensive gear from EMC, IBM, etc. why not build a cost effective storage array? Of course, Dell would be cutting into their EMC partnership, but do they really want to work with a company that is dating Cisco?

In conclusion, I find Dell a fascinating company with explosive potential. Given the right vision and strategy, Dell could catapult ahead of the pack.

I must admit that I had a good chuckle when I read the reports of Cisco’s financial analyst conference on Tuesday.  After all these years at the helm, it’s amazing to watch Chambers discuss subjects ranging from Flip to Cisco’s projected long-term growth rate.  However, it is clear to me that Chambers’ relishes dominating the next chapter in communications.

Cisco understands that fighting a two flank war against powerful advisories like HP and IBM is fraught with danger, could lead to slower adoption of their vision, and may yield lower than projected growth rates.  So what’s a company to do?  Divide and Conquer.  How?  You lay the trap.  HP had their chance and chose to go in a different direction; lost cause.  IBM had their chance and turned Cisco down but maybe they should reconsider; Venus Flytrap,

Lost Cause:  HP is determined and ready to take on Cisco head-to-head.  They have spent billions of dollars creating a software and services powerhouse while quietly making inroads within enterprise networking.  Additionally, HP has consumer brand recognition and acceptance which Cisco craves.  Finally, HP has Michael Hurd; a driven CEO who is ready and willing to lead this industry.  There is little Cisco can do here to sway HP’s momentum and vision.  Therefore, the best Cisco can hope for is to continue collecting purchase orders from the HP channel.

Venus Flytrap:  IBM has almost everything they need to take on Cisco but they have taken a more cautious approach than HP.  After-all, IBM has dominant research and development capabilities and are the fathers of autonomic computing.  IBM has always concentrated on high margin / high value products while tying everything together with their vaunted services division.  Perhaps IBM is in a quandary; while services, storage, virtualization, software, servers, mainframes, etc yield high margins, enterprise networking computing has become commoditized while datacenter networking equipment remains a question mark.  Cisco aims to help IBM with their quandary by offering a truce of sorts; work with us and we won’t go into storage or services! 

If you believe that, then I have some Ocean Front Property in Arizona to sell you.  Cisco has already chosen sides on the storage and virtualization fronts by aligning themselves with EMC and VMware.  A combination of Cisco and EMC would give them a foothold within those areas as well as security and management software; all of which would threaten IBM. 

Also, Chambers claims Cisco won’t be going the route of HP’s acquisition of EDS to buy their way into services.  In the short term this is a great strategy, in the long term they are going to buy someone like CSC, ACS, Unisys, or even McKesson (I’ll leave that to a future post).  Again, Cisco offered IBM an olive-branch of sorts in exchange for a tighter partnership that Cisco craved in beginning.

The million dollar question is; what will IBM do?  Does IBM continue to throw jabs at Cisco through their partnerships while Cisco throws power punches?  Does IBM acquire Juniper or Brocade to battle Cisco and HP?  Or, does IBM take a wait-and-see approach?

Personally, I’d like to know what the heck is going on at Dell and Oracle.  I’ll give Oracle a bit of a break as they battle the EU for control of Sun but Dell has got to wake up and fast.  They have a chance to crash this party by innovating and commoditizing the industry faster than everyone else can recoup their costs.  This sounds like when Michael Dell revolutionized the PC industry by introducing direct purchasing and just-in-time assembling. 

For now, Cisco has laid the trap and they await the fruits of their labor.  Once again, Chambers continues to impress as this is better than any reality TV series; brilliant.

It must feel a bit like being in the movie Groundhog Day over at Cisco as they continue to face increasing competition from both large and small challengers.  However, unlike the past, consolidation and the rise of the next generation datacenter (Cloud Computing) has dramatically raised the stakes.  Cisco cannot simply use their superior channel, army of certified engineers and sales people, partnerships, and market power to eliminate or marginalize the competition.  Further complicating matters is the delicate balance between companies that both cooperate and compete within the same market.

As Cisco marches forward with their Unified Computing strategy, they’ll need more than organic development and growth to unseat the likes of HP, IBM, Dell, and Sun.  I was highly disappointed with Cisco’s UCS B-Series Blade Servers as they weren’t as innovative or as tied into the Nexus products as I had hoped.  To that end, it is time for Cisco to shake up the server market with an acquisition (or two) of their own.

One such acquisition target is Liquid Computing headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  Liquid Computing has built a unified computing system called LiquidIQ that is made up of both hardware and software.  From a hardware perspective, Liquid Computing is innovative, dense, and creates a “datacenter in a rack”.  From a software perspective, Liquid Computing has created a central point for management with their LiquidView software including server, storage, and network configuration and management. 

With one brush of Cisco’s checkbook, they would instantly change the game and rock the IT industry.  An acquisition of Liquid Computing could be as important to Cisco as it was when they purchased Kalpana in 1994.  While Liquid Computing has been branded a “Visionary” in Gartner’s 2009 Magic Quadrant, an acquisition by Cisco would certainly elevate them into the Magic Quadrant (Upper Right-Hand Corner).

Imagine re-branding and integrating Liquid Computing with Cisco’s Nexus and Unified Computing product lines.  Virtually overnight, this new solution based on Liquid Computing would be injected into the Cisco machine and made available to customers worldwide.  Over time, Cisco would strengthen Liquid Computing’s ties to EMC and VMware, while injecting more and more core Nexus technology into the solution.

Cisco is on the cusp of not only redefining themselves but also an entire industry.  To complete this transformation, Cisco must bold and move out of their comfort zone.  The game has definitely changed as Cisco’s greatest competitive threats do not necessarily come from classic networking providers or start-ups such as Juniper, Brocade, or Riverbed; instead, it comes from the likes of HP, IBM, Dell, Huawei, and more. 

Instead of simply watching HP buy 3Com, Dell and IBM OEM Juniper equipment, Oracle buying Sun, and awaiting Huawei’s entrance into the U.S Market (possibly with the purchase of Motorola), Cisco must launch an offensive on the server vendors via a visionary acquisition. 

Could this visionary acquisition be Liquid Computing?  Perhaps Groundhog Day may be coming to an end.

A tip of the cap to the management and M&A teams at HP, as they continue to acquire the necessary pieces to challenge Cisco’s core business.  With HP’s acquisition of 3Com for $2.7 billion, HP has gained a portfolio of modern architected networking products that span switching, routing, and network security.  Additionally, HP expanded access to overseas markets, including the ever expanding market in China, through 3Com’s H3C unit. 

While some will laugh at the reach and capabilities of 3Com, HP understands that 3Com’s products are solid, modern, and good-enough when put under the HP ProCurve brand and backed by the power of HP and their Services Division.  Furthermore, while Cisco continues to date the likes of EMC and VMware, HP is in full control of their destiny.  They have built a strong portfolio that spans storage, servers, virtualization, networking, security, applications, and management.

While Cisco isn’t going to be losing any sleep over this acquisition, they will take note of how aggressive HP is going to be to not only defend their own turf but also to expand into Cisco’s bread and butter.  However, IBM, Juniper, Brocade, and Dell may be tossing and turning tonight as they contemplate the future.  If IBM continues to wait to purchase the necessary pieces to compete with HP and Cisco, their choices will be limited.  If Dell does not shore up their portfolio, then they face the reality of falling further behind and severely limiting their growth potential.  Finally, both Juniper and Brocade must weigh the possibility that organic growth may not be possible as we are nearing a major inflection point for all of IT.

One quick note, don’t underestimate Huawei or ZTE as they are both hungry and flush with cash.  Additionally, Oracle remains a wildcard as they may jump into this race.

Over the years, we have watched Cisco launch new products with a marketing panache that few companies could match.  However, this week Cisco quietly launched 61 products centered on their ever expanding portfolio of collaboration technologies.  The importance of these announcements cannot be overstated, as we are watching Cisco’s long term strategy unfold before our very eyes.

What do WebEX, PostPath, Scientific Atlanta, Pure Digital Technologies, Unified Communications, and perhaps Tandberg have in common?  They spell out a strategy of collaboration and social networking centered on video and its delivery.  Whether the video, photo, or recordings take place on a hand-held device, a TelePresence conference, or a web camera, or a HD TV, Cisco is providing not only the transport but also the platform (aka software) or portal destination (WebEx).

While WebEx Mail is interesting as it demonstrates Cisco’s commitment to cloud based applications, I am far more interested in Cisco’s other new products namely; Cisco Show and Share, Cisco Enterprise Collaboration Platform, and Cisco Pulse.  Why?  While some have prematurely crowned Google Wave as the collaboration platform of the future, many Enterprises would rather maintain security, control, and freedom from using their employees as a giant pool for advertisement revenue. 

As Google continues to fight for legitimacy in the Enterprise, Cisco is clearly already a dominant force.  Furthermore, WebEx may be the perfect launching and test bed for these new ways of collaborating as it is trusted, reliable, and well refined.  Perhaps Cisco should consider expanding the WebEx brand allowing for a WebEx-I built within an internal cloud?  Perhaps creating a pre-packaged WebEx, Show and Share, and Enterprise Collaboration Platform conveniently hosted with VMs residing in a UCS-B platform, attached to a Nexus via a Unified Fabric, and on and on…

Of particular interest to me is Cisco Pulse as it combines the power of the network with the advantages of search.  Imagine being able to dynamically tag content as it passes through the network allowing users to actually find the information they are looking for at a later time.  If Cisco can add structure and classification to the tagged data, then they certainly have a winner.

Any discussion of the Enterprise is not complete without mentioning Microsoft.  While they have taken steps to shore up their Enterprise products, are they too focused on taking down Google?  Microsoft has the ability to not only innovate but to rapidly deploy those innovations within the largest Enterprises in the world.  In-the-end, Microsoft needs a way to shed the “Evil Empire” crown while articulating a vision that is exciting, bold, and fresh. 

Whether it is by acquisition or internal development, Cisco has never been afraid to disrupt or innovate across multiple markets.  How far will they go to own the next decade?  Will they pursue mobile devices?  Will they truly escape “the innovators dilemma?”

Traditional or Next Generation Software/Application Vendors beware; here comes Cisco.

Cisco has unveiled their latest Unified Communications/Cloud Computing move by strengthening their relationship with VMware to develop new products and forming a new Joint Venture, Arcadia, with EMC, VMware, and Intel. In-other-words, Cisco is on a giant group date.

 Cisco has been dating EMC for many years as they resell EMC’s storage gear. In fact, Cisco purchased EMC some nice lake front property when they invested, and bet, heavily on VMware. Yesterday, Cisco and EMC decided to move-in-together by forming Arcadia. Meanwhile, Intel has decided to play chaperone for a while and make sure these two giants play nice.

Let’s face it; for Cisco to match/defend against rival HP’s one-stop-shop strategy they need to unravel the delicate cooperation/competition agreements with the likes of HP, IBM, and more. While HP has a formidable portfolio of hardware and software, Dell and IBM have beefed up agreements with the likes of Brocade and Juniper. Juniper may be in the enviable position of being courted by multiple companies but eventually they’ll have to tie-the-knot.

 The combination of Cisco and EMC would send shockwaves across the IT industry. Cisco would gain instant access and credibility to the storage, virtualization, and management worlds. However, the aftershocks would be just as powerful as HP, Dell, and IBM would surely take forceful and definitive actions.

What would you pay to be a fly-in-the-wall of a conference room with Chambers and Tucci? Or, better yet, to be in Ellison’s office when he read the news of the merger? Clearly, Oracle is becoming a wild card within the IT industry and they could really mess things up by acquiring BMC, Brocade, or even Juniper.

While JV’s, partnerships, and investments are cute, it’s time for a more serious relationship. Cisco needs to take advantage of this moment, pull out that ring in the safe, get down one knee, and ask EMC for its hand in marriage. In that moment the world would be holding its breath…yes or no.

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!

Whether large, medium, small, or start-up, there comes a time in the life of every company that shapes both the future of the company itself and the industry at large.  Today, the battle for the datacenter has sent shockwaves throughout the silos of networking, server, storage, and security.  As Cisco and HP have gone “all-in”, it is time for IBM to place its bet.

The stakes are incredibly high and there is little margin for error.  IBM can either purchase the necessary pieces to “unify” the datacenter and compete head-to-head with HP and Cisco, or they can continue to partner with the likes of Cisco, Juniper, etc. to provide a best-of-breed solution fueled by their own services business.  However, consolidation may prove to make the latter unsustainable and doing nothing may lead IBM on a precarious path.

Cisco understands the importance of IBM, HP, and others to their bottom line as both of these giants resell Cisco equipment to their customers.  However, Cisco continues to take steps to diversify their business model and they are one acquisition away from changing the equation.  What acquisition?  How about engineering a purchase of CSC, ACS, or the coup de grace Accenture?  Don’t laugh; ever envision a world without Lehman Brothers or Meryl Lynch?

HP is clearly positioning itself as the answer to Cisco’s dominance.  HP has or is prepared to acquire the missing pieces to reshape IT.  With their aggressive purchases of Mercury Interactive, Opsware, and EDS, HP has shown a keen sense of urgency, vision, and market awareness.  It is no wonder that HP is pondering additional networking acquisitions to strengthen their position within Ethernet switching and storage networking.

IBM too has taken steps to answer the unified computing challenge, but their approach has been through partnerships, research and development efforts, and OEM agreements.  With a fragmented industry, this approach made perfect sense.  However, as the industry continues to consolidate, IBM may find their most important OEMs or partners in the hands of their rivals.  One such example of this danger, is with the rumored “for sale” sign that now hangs above Brocade.  IBM recently signed an OEM agreement with Brocade for their network switches.  Would this agreement continue if Brocade is purchased by HP?

It is gut check time for IBM.  IBM has strong plays in services, applications, storage, servers, virtualization, and security with a glaring hole within networking.  Do they continue to fill this hole with Juniper, Brocade, Cisco, and more while accepting the risks associated with this strategy or do they fill it by making a strategic acquisition or two?

Perhaps an alternative strategy would be an even tighter relationship with Cisco.  However, as Cisco aggressively moves into IBM’s home turf (servers, virtualization, storage), this may be untenable.  After all, Cisco’s Chambers realizes the money is in services and eventually he will want a bigger piece of the services pie.

Does IBM want to lead, follow, or get out of the way?  Do they let their vision of autonomic computing slip through their fingertips?  Do they allow Oracle to become a one-stop-shop?  Do they watch while Cisco enters into the services business?  Do they allow HP to continue to grow and extend their reach and capabilities?  Or do they fight?  Do they purchase Brocade and Juniper?  Do they finally unify, via technology not marketing, networking, storage, servers, security?

In-the-end, these decisions will be made deep within IBM’s boardroom and are conditional on Samuel J. Palmisano’s, CEO and Chairman of the Board of IBM, vision for the company.  He’s already reshaped IBM’s software business with the purchase of Cognos and SPSS (pending), why not take a shot at redefining networking, datacenter, and cloud computing?

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?”

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.