On a side note, LT (Lawrence Taylor? LaDainian Tomlinson) claims to go “way back” with The VAR Guy. Clearly, the two share a common interest in Animal House.

You could say The VAR Guy is a bit like Daniel Simpson ‘D-Day’ Day. VAR Guy may have worked at Smart Partner. But nobody knows for sure. And nobody has seen him since the closing credits of that publication …

The year was 2001 and the VAR Guy was working for a Ziff Davis channel pub called Smart Partner. On one of the covers that year was a cartoon drawing of John Chambers dressed in a toga, but unlike the VAR Guy’s best friend Bluto Blutarsky of the infamous Delta House Chambers was made to look like the historical ruler of Rome Julius Ceasar. All around John where other folks, also dressed in togas, representing the up-and-coming networking companies that represented a threat to Cisco, companies like Foundary, Extreme, Juniper, etc… Fast forward 7-years and here we are again. The threats are different and again well thought out, but the core of the story is the same. And not that this is bad, but because I know the VAR Guy wants to make sure his readers are well informed I thought I would provide some additional insight to his 5 Cisco threats.

5)Yes, it is true John cannot lead Cisco forever, but this May 9, 2007 Business Week story clearly states this is an issue that is 3-5 years out for Cisco.

4) The technology shortage is an industry issue that has been well documented, but perhaps the issue that isn’t as well documented is the impact the shortage could have on channel partners (See CRN here).

Any company with a heavy reliance on channels/solution providers needs to be thinking about how they will adress the issue and equally important how they will help their channel partners do the same. More than 80% of Cisco’s annual revenue flows through its channel partners, that’s more than a $20B business, and Cisco is proud that it has not only outlined how it will address the issue, but how it will help its partners address the issue as well. Not all the details have been disclosed on this initiative, but Cisco is clearly out in front of the rest of the industry, especially when it comes to helping its channel partners. For more insight here’s a blog entry from Amazon Consulting stemming from the Cisco Partner Summit that provides more details on the issue and highlights a few of the intial things Cisco is doing to help channel partners address the issue.

3)It’s no secret that Microsoft and Google have risen to the top of the Cisco competitors list. It is also no secret that Cisco is a company that is built on listening to its customers, which is why in many cases Cisco will also collaborate with Microsoft and if requested Google. However, the Microsoft/Google battle (see CNet) may divert some of the focus away from Cisco.

1&2)The open source network debate is an interesting one. However, even Vyatta acknowledges it can’t all be done by software and thus this bit of information from InformationWeek, “That’s why Vyatta intends to launch a hardware appliance sometime this summer.”

To learn more about this debate read Network World’s Faceoff…

Safe tarvels home from Vegas VAR Guy