Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I have lost count of the number of PE/DE who have disappeared into some VPs pet projects/POC/open src/conf circuit rather than applying themselves to improving product quality which is rock bottom...

It's not as good as firing the lot of them, but it's a lot better than letting them continue to poison the development chain with nonsense they pulled out of their butts in 15 minute meetings. The elementary school book reports full of plagiarized and self contradicting statements labeled "white papers" or "architecture" aren't exactly advancing the state of the art either. This is the weakest technical leadership I've ever encountered and the reason that quality has been their biggest problem for decades.

real test of MPLS is now - without the easy sugar and ready technology of a spin-in deal. let us see what they deliver and who buys in.

I have lost count of the number of PE/DE who have disappeared into some VPs pet projects/POC/open src/conf circuit rather than applying themselves to improving product quality which is rock bottom....its a sign when customers are terrified to upgrade and pickup bugs and features because they know 90% the upgrade is going to end up in a mess and need TAC/BU intervention :(

Very profound imagery from -2mih. Nailed the current state of affairs.

@2enh: "Nobody even bother about 7k" ... which is exactly the problem with our engineering, especially the PE/DE. Running away instead of learning from mistakes means all they have are nice buzzwords picked up from their personal network but no real insight. If MPLS wants to hire them - fine with me. There would be no loss for Cisco, the quality of advice and code commits has reached bottom level already.

For Ravi A.: he had to remind his folks what the task was he had given them. These experts simply got lost in technical detail and forgot the basic goals. I agree with you as I wondered why he had accepted them for top engineering positions in first place.

Cisco's biggest risks are internal not external. The biggest challenge is that Cisco has completely rotted inside. It is now full of incompetent, self serving executives and low quality employees. They are all parasitically surviving off of the innovation and successes of the distant past produced by those long gone.

With Cisco's solid gold brand name, massive profitability, tremendous global reach, and previous lead in so many critical market segments there should have been no chance for Arista, Dell/EMC/VMWare, Huawei, Palo Alto Networks, etc. to get market footholds. Cisco is like an aged out, has been athlete who was once at the top of his game and invincible who then became rich, lazy, drank, and partied himself into a sad, fat, feeble, incapable, shadow of his former self.

Unfortunately, it looks like a long, slow, painful path to the end from here. There is little chance of it getting better in the future.

@LM3YU0X-1pol -I left cisco longtime back. But still people loves MPLS for their contribution. There will be impact for sure in Cisco[specially 9k/7k] as people wants to join them. Nobody even bother about 7k. Are you serious when you say PE/DE had to be corrected by Ravi A.. ? what a joke.

Because there are cases[Actually lot of people know this] where he has given PE/DE promo to his cronies with TL level ability, which proves he has limited technical ability.

Insieme Product doesn't support IPv6! How smart can they be?

@1gub: sorry to disappoint you. MPLS were given lot of freedom, does not mean their employees ( note I am including non-engineers) loved working for them. They are undoubtly smart executives. That org was not really something to envy about- you got the huge compensation. If you are looking to have a normal life with competitive salary, MOVE OUT. Cisco and its old execs are like cancer that we have gotten used to. We dont need to tolerate the chemotherapy pains. Many companies outside have NORMAL employee expectations.

@LM3YU0X-1pol - I was referring to the people keeping the lights on, seeing that the new company is rewarding its engineers instead of LRing them, and deciding to jump ship. I don't know if MPLS are truly smart, but they were given lots of freedom while at Cisco, and that might carry over

Aci sw has a tremendous number of bugs. Topped with a poor ui thats ridiculous even compared to decade old vmw vcenter ui. But then their directors track bugs in middle of night and pounce on things so they manage somehow.

You still believe this story of the "star engineers"? They are smart executives and know how to play the bay area economy and Cisco politics. And yes, their Cisco-funded spin-out/spin-ins provided interesting technology ideas - but they delivered demo-level results.

It took years to get the N7k code into a reasonable shape (and it still has lots of bugs). The N7k forwarding hardware was Cat6k technology, it took Cisco years to get something done like the F3 card (end 2013). N5k/6k, again it took years to be integrated back into the same code line. The standalone N9k is a joke, taking the lower price (for Cisco) aside; standard hardware, some "deep buffers" added and effectively old software - and running outside the N5k/6k/7k software train.

For the "brains": you don't understand how dire the situation in Cisco is. The brains I would be interested in are largely locked in H-1B handcuffs. If you mean the principal/distinguished engineers, we just had an NXOS summit and it was interesting to see how these "brains" had to be corrected by Ravi A.. These folks are lost in technology buzzword and Linux gimmicks.

But hey, let's give MPLS a chance and see what they do. Of course, this may turn into another Sequoia et al. funded company that Cisco then buys for lots of money ... there are not many ex-execs that made it outside the Cisco ecosystem.

Problem with aci is it needs a long term commitment to a nexus9k L2 network to get best results. In this day its a tough vision to sell.

Almost certain its some kind of box, could be multiple ventures, word around pantry was this time they would be financiers and advisors and let the 2nd level of their wolfpack lead as vp and cxo. The big3 are getting along in years though they surely have a huge level of personal drive.

Some hyperconverged box perhaps using a mix of custom asics and intels hybrid cpu fpga family to get great east west datapath numbers at very low cost per core and 40g/100g port?

It can certainly lead to the brains at Cisco leaving for greener pastures, if the new place will hire them. Which will breed resentment in those left out, leading to more defections

ACI isn't exactly a killer product in a cloud and software defined world. They missed the boat on it and the field is suffering.

MPLS didn't deliver the goods this time around. Maybe they've lost their touch in the new world or made a rare misstep. Who knows if they'll come back strong?

Quite a lot. If you think about it all innovation Cisco created itself, came from this team. Plus a lot of the key engineers will be looking at this as their only opportunity to make it big as CR has put a stop to this, so Cisco is losing key people regardless.

CR has created quite a few credible enemies. Let's hope for Cisco sake they don't turn-up at AWS, Arista or VMWare or their DC business will be at serious risk.

Good number of their gang left last summer though the ones i knew were in sw..i suspect its a box not just a chip. Chip is a lower margin biz and broadcom is there. Chip could be a just one of two ventures or a maskirovka