Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Cisco has been a walking dead company for a decade.

Many many moons ago, Cisco was a switch and router company. Then Cisco decided to make two strategic purchases and these two companies were:

• Aironet (access points)
• and later Airospace (wlan appliances, aka wireless controllers).

Fast forward to today, they laid off all the texas and ohio teams, including the WiMax teams.

And we watched as all that talent left (every layoff) and went to:
Aruba
Juniper
Ruckus
Spider
Mist
Startup
Startup
Startup

Cisco basically gave their wireless business away.

This happened because Cisco was billing itself as a cloud company, but a cloud company that did not have a cloud (nonetheless).

So, what could Cisco do?

They had no choice. They did not know what their customers would want cloud or wireless is what they thought and they bought yet another company (Meraki).

They looked it as a binary choice.

Other companies are looking at the complete solution: cloud, wireless, customer support, delivery, execution.

Cisco still offers two products that are worlds apart.

The only tangible way that Cisco wireless solutions touch each other is that they both work with Cisco offered appliances that provide flexible management (meaning spending more money on Cisco appliances and services.

However, if we buy into what SHOULD look like a cloud based approach, that SHOULD look a LOT more simpler. It should look like Cloud. And the services SHOULD be part of the cloud. These additional services should NOT be another costly network appliance or VMWare / UCS appliance with more Cisco bloated software.

It should be Meraki cloud.

And the old Cisco has to go in order for Cisco to compete with the same folks that once worked at Cisco (who now work for Aruba and other competitors).

The people that Cisco laid off know. They know something that Cisco does not yet know.

They have vision, strategy, and they have Cisco's brain trust.

Sad to see what has happened to this once great giant.

Cisco, sadly is competing against themselves, while at the same time competing agains others and losing.

And the cost will eventually become unbearable and Cisco will have to decide to let go of one or the other.

I'm pretty sure they will keep Meraki, but it will end up looking a LOT different than it does now. That's for sure.

maybe there is a correlation between declining revenue and projecting a woke corporate image? if Cisco offered cloud products and services we wouldn't be talking about social justice issues.

Like the poster said:
Go Woke and be Broke

I know 3 SEs who got LR'ed in the past 4 yrs, they are all happily working at....... Aruba.
Now, who's got the last laugh? hahahahaha

Have you seen the latest Gartner square for the wireless space?

What happened?

Aruba (HP) is listed as a "Visionary".

Cisco. Meh. Not so much anyone in wireless would sneeze at anymore.

Not entirely true. Aruba does have great customer support for their biggest customers. I have seen them in action at several of the larger customer sites where I worked. And because of this Aruba is making inroads.

In one sense you could have a little truth though. I would venture to say that Aruba does not support every customer the same way. But they will have to gaurd this customer account close to the heart if they plan to keep. But I'm sure they know this.

As far as the buggy software goes. Cisco's legacy is just as bad. It's true. Cisco has their two wireless children now.

Meraki & Legacy.

Look, I get all the comments, but don't miss the big picture, here.

Meraki is their STAR child. Legacy's star is fading. The Pentagon replaced Cisco's legacy with Aruba's cloud.

See? The worst part to the story is not that the Pentagon wanted Cisco's legacy out.

It's that they also passed on Cisco's star child. Meraki wireless.

Cisco got the double slammy whammy, here.

Their legacy is fading, and their cloud gets passed by. Ouch !!

Another sign of amazing leadership by Chuck and his ELT. No big deal though because Cisco's focus is on social justice not wireless or networking.

Aruba cloud solution is junk and buggy. This is the reason they acquired silver peak. They got rescued by silver peak, who are the market leader. Pentagon was Aruba customer 4-5 years ago but at a smaller scale.
Another reason is that cisco constantly lays off enterprise wireless engineers. Where do they go ? They all end up at competitors. Competitors are getting stronger but they do not have the customer support like Cisco systems. Not sure how long they will stick to non-cisco gear ? Time will tell

If I were a Cisco Executive I would start keeping promises that are made to Cisco (wireless legacy) customers. I think that must be Cisco's main issue in the last few years (obviously). You do NOT get a customer like the Pentagon without making promises based on Security (primarily). My guess Cisco made promises around Security and did NOT deliver: FIPS, Upgradability, WEP3, etc, etc, etc.

And I'd bet my bottom dollar that HP/Aruba knows Cisco's weakness (VERY WELL), which of course is probably why HP/Aruba beat out Cisco and took their Customer (the Pentagon WAS a HUGE customer for Cisco). So, this is a BIG BIG LOSS for Cisco.

Of course you know that HP/Aruba Sales Teams are probably talking to Cisco's customers every week (like a Weekly Scrum meeting (ar ar) ) and surely they ask:

1. ) What has Cisco done well?
2. ) What has Cisco lack?
3. ) HP/Aruba can do that for you TODAY.

Anyway, all Agile Scrum jokes aside, do keep in mind that the customer would not be talking to HP/Aruba if Cisco was keeping the promises they made to their own wireless customers.

This downward trend has not always been the case for Cisco. I think Cisco got weak on wireless (enterprise) after they purchased Meraki (wireless) and a lot of companies know that Cisco is battling on two fronts and losing. In fact, this is just on story in a string of Cisco Wireless losses to HP/Aruba and others. If it were just one loss to HP/Aruba, I would not be alarmed. But I feel it is a strong indicator and a predictor of what has been transpiring for some time. A tail spin for Cisco, I am afraid.

More importantly, HP/Aruba has obviously been studying Cisco weaknesses and has been moving on them for the last few years. It's not obvious, but if you read between the lines, you will understand that Cisco has been deliberately neglecting their wireless (enterprise side) and focusing on Meraki side. Read all the old articles and you will discover the trend. Cisco will ultimately leave the legacy wireless business and move to Meraki only solution during the next round of layoffs, as they have simply let this business unit go to their competitors.

#ooof

Aruba is owned by HP, duh!! Help Please.

Wow... that's bad... unless, they get of from the door to re-enter from the windows of so many agencies linked...

without new government contracts Cisco is a zombie company