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10 years ago I was out drinking at a bar in Santa Cruz with a marketing rep for Cisco who asked us what our thoughts were about the company as regards to other

10 years ago I was out drinking at a bar in Santa Cruz with a marketing rep for Cisco who asked us what our thoughts were about the company as regards to other technology companies. I told her that I didn't really think of Cisco as a technology company, but as an acquisition company; which she was really surprised to hear. Even then it was pretty apparent that they weren't doing very much in-house (and it's gotten even worse since then). Which is sort of a shame, as back in my network engineer days I dreamed about working there on IOS.

tptacek 16y ago
I know people who washed into Cisco in acquisitions who multiple times left to start companies marketing remarkably specific and incremental improvements to existing Cisco products; almost as bad as, "here's the company I started to provide this specific report for the Cisco 4371GX†". I'm not kidding about the MRD thing; if you're an entrepreneur and a developer, I think they might be tradeable information. I've never worked at Cisco and I have no negative opinions of them or their products. Like I said, the strategy seems to work. I just wonder whether Google's culture is ready for the terminus of this slippery slope. Remember what they used to say about Microsoft in the late '90s? How it wasn't a good idea to make fun of their 1.0 products, because the one thing they were going to be good at was refining them and refining them and refining them until they took over the market? Who still does that anymore? † Made up
- gms 16y ago
  "Who still does that anymore?" Apple?
  - tptacek 16y ago
    Yep. Apple is one.
- m0nastic 16y ago
  I've always found it odd how many resources they still devote to R&D considering their acquisition strategy. I agree, I actually still like the company (although I was never actually a fan of the Pix's, the ASA's are a lot better). When I was at BBN we worked really closely with Cisco, and some of my other colleagues made their way over there. I don't know who is left to do that sort of "iterative product development". I feel like as the scale of technology has increased, it's really become easier to just let someone else take the risk in launching something, and then if they're successful, buy them up.
- RyanMcGreal 16y ago
  >I know people who washed into Cisco in acquisitions who multiple times left to start companies marketing remarkably specific and incremental improvements to existing Cisco products When you put it that way, it actually sounds like a wonderful (for Cisco) way to outsource the risk of innovation by offering to pay a premium for good ideas that are well executed.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    It probably is. But it's probably not compatible with the engineering culture at Google.
- zoomzoom 16y ago
  who still does that anymore? how about google! look at sometime like GAE - constant stream on steady improvements, not great yet but still you must admit it is getting better. Same for gmail (still ahead of the competition), search, and pretty much everything else that they do.

tptacek 16y ago

I know people who washed into Cisco in acquisitions who multiple times left to start companies marketing remarkably specific and incremental improvements to existing Cisco products; almost as bad as, "here's the company I started to provide this specific report for the Cisco 4371GX†". I'm not kidding about the MRD thing; if you're an entrepreneur and a developer, I think they might be tradeable information. I've never worked at Cisco and I have no negative opinions of them or their products. Like I said, the strategy seems to work. I just wonder whether Google's culture is ready for the terminus of this slippery slope. Remember what they used to say about Microsoft in the late '90s? How it wasn't a good idea to make fun of their 1.0 products, because the one thing they were going to be good at was refining them and refining them and refining them until they took over the market? Who still does that anymore? † Made up

gms 16y ago
"Who still does that anymore?" Apple?
- tptacek 16y ago
  Yep. Apple is one.
m0nastic 16y ago
I've always found it odd how many resources they still devote to R&D considering their acquisition strategy. I agree, I actually still like the company (although I was never actually a fan of the Pix's, the ASA's are a lot better). When I was at BBN we worked really closely with Cisco, and some of my other colleagues made their way over there. I don't know who is left to do that sort of "iterative product development". I feel like as the scale of technology has increased, it's really become easier to just let someone else take the risk in launching something, and then if they're successful, buy them up.
RyanMcGreal 16y ago
>I know people who washed into Cisco in acquisitions who multiple times left to start companies marketing remarkably specific and incremental improvements to existing Cisco products When you put it that way, it actually sounds like a wonderful (for Cisco) way to outsource the risk of innovation by offering to pay a premium for good ideas that are well executed.
- tptacek 16y ago
  It probably is. But it's probably not compatible with the engineering culture at Google.
zoomzoom 16y ago
who still does that anymore? how about google! look at sometime like GAE - constant stream on steady improvements, not great yet but still you must admit it is getting better. Same for gmail (still ahead of the competition), search, and pretty much everything else that they do.