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Data: InformationWeek Research Analyzing The Networking Vendors survey of 623 business-technology professionals. |
NASA adviser Paragone says security influenced his decision to go with Cisco. NASA is "probably as big a target as anyone else, if not bigger," he says. "So preventing infrastructure compromise and preventing data loss or denial of service, [that's] what they're facing." But not all Cisco customers are pleased. Terry Hamidi, network administrator at Colonial Savings FA, says he was "very unhappy and dissatisfied" with the Cisco intrusion-detection system he managed until six months ago, when he chose a new product he declines to name. A reseller installed the Cisco intrusion-detection system, and Colonial Savings' networking team wasn't given enough documentation or training, despite repeated calls to the reseller and Cisco, Hamidi says. Now the system sits idle while its replacement sniffs along for intrusions.
3Com would have liked to score higher on security, having spent $430 million on its acquisition last year of security company TippingPoint, which makes intrusion-prevention systems. "We think we're extraordinarily strong in security," 3Com chief marketing officer Jim Freeze says.
Among survey respondents investing in VoIP, the main drivers are reduced costs, improved productivity, real-time access to company data, and easier, reduced administration. Although South Shore's Daniel isn't going to move his car dealership to VoIP anytime soon, he knows the change will happen eventually, and he'll pay what he must to get reliable gear. A comprehensive service and support package also will be a priority with VoIP, Daniel says.
Major Challenges
Roughly one-third of respondents cited difficulty of administration as a major challenge. Hewlett-Packard received the highest score for product manageability, 8.1, followed by Cisco, 7.7; 3Com, 7.3; and Nortel, 7.2. Kentucky Bank's Ingram did a price comparison with 3Com and HP switches and found them both to be well-priced, but he preferred the configuration choices he'd get with HP. "We pride ourselves in having a very robust, very predictable, very straightforward product," HP's McHugh says. HP has its own line of network-management software and recently released plug-ins for the line that help manage wireless LAN components and user IDs on the network.
HP has come a long way to compete among the top ranks of the networking world, having started its ProCurve networking arm less than eight years ago. McHugh says HP has risen from 11th to second in port shipments in the Ethernet switching market, according to Dell'Oro Research numbers, and ranks third in revenue for switches behind Cisco and Nortel.
