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Cisco is in the business of selling big, black, expensive boxes that have a lot of security badges and fancy icons. People who buy such boxes don't care if they

Cisco is in the business of selling big, black, expensive boxes that have a lot of security badges and fancy icons. People who buy such boxes don't care if they actually work, they want a big box so that they can claim they "invested in security".

pwg 8y ago
Actually, they want the Cisco box because it has those 'badges' and that then allows them to check off all the check-boxes on the semi-annual security compliance report paperwork they have to file with some other department. But you are right, they don't care if the box is secure, they just care that they have a CYA that allows them to "check off their own boxes" on their reports.
user5994461 8y ago
What would you buy instead of Cisco? HP and Dell are the same thing. From experience a decade ago, the HP usually did not have the enterprise features they advertised. The other minor brands are very hard to procure if you're not in the US or a primary English speaking country.
- Drdrdrq 8y ago
  Juniper? Extreme? The list is not very long, but doesn't contain just Cisco.
  - user5994461 8y ago
    Last I checked, long ago, they were impossible to procure in France. Pretty sure Extreme is still non-existent in Europe as of today. For all the flaws of Cisco, well the only flaw is the price, they can deliver in any language anywhere in the world.
    - Drdrdrq 8y ago
      Juniper has offices and partners all over EU, for example in Paris [0]. Similar to Extreme [1]. I don't know what problems you encountered in France, but I can assure you both of them are very well represented across the whole EU, even less developed parts of it. The reason managers pick Cisco is mostly that "nobody gets fired for picking Cisco" imho. [0] https://www.juniper.net/us/en/contact-us/sales-offices/paris/ https://www.juniper.net/us/en/contact-us/sales-offices/paris... [1] https://fr.extremenetworks.com/ https://fr.extremenetworks.com/

pwg 8y ago

Actually, they want the Cisco box because it has those 'badges' and that then allows them to check off all the check-boxes on the semi-annual security compliance report paperwork they have to file with some other department. But you are right, they don't care if the box is secure, they just care that they have a CYA that allows them to "check off their own boxes" on their reports.

user5994461 8y ago

What would you buy instead of Cisco? HP and Dell are the same thing. From experience a decade ago, the HP usually did not have the enterprise features they advertised. The other minor brands are very hard to procure if you're not in the US or a primary English speaking country.

Drdrdrq 8y ago
Juniper? Extreme? The list is not very long, but doesn't contain just Cisco.
- user5994461 8y ago
  Last I checked, long ago, they were impossible to procure in France. Pretty sure Extreme is still non-existent in Europe as of today. For all the flaws of Cisco, well the only flaw is the price, they can deliver in any language anywhere in the world.
  - Drdrdrq 8y ago
    Juniper has offices and partners all over EU, for example in Paris [0]. Similar to Extreme [1]. I don't know what problems you encountered in France, but I can assure you both of them are very well represented across the whole EU, even less developed parts of it. The reason managers pick Cisco is mostly that "nobody gets fired for picking Cisco" imho. [0] https://www.juniper.net/us/en/contact-us/sales-offices/paris/ https://www.juniper.net/us/en/contact-us/sales-offices/paris... [1] https://fr.extremenetworks.com/ https://fr.extremenetworks.com/