Soni Jiandani, VP Marketing, Storage Tech Group, Cisco

Soni Jiandani joined Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) in 1994, when she became VP of marketing for the workgroup business unit in Cisco's enterprise line of business. Since then, her contributions have helped Cisco secure its current position as a market-share leader in Ethernet LAN switching, building the business from $295 million in 1995 to $4.4 billion in 1999 and bringing Cisco's market share to over 47 percent.

The company is hoping she'll do the same in the storage networking group. [Ed. note: No pressure, then!]

As the marketing VP of Cisco's storage technology group, one of 10 technology groups at Cisco, Jiandani heads up all of the marketing activities for the group, which she says is focused on the convergence of storage area networks and IP networking.

Jiandani reports to Luca Cafiero, senior VP and general manager of switching, voice, and storage at Cisco. Cafiero founded Crescendo Networks, which Cisco acquired for $89 million in 1993. Crescendo's product line went on to become Cisco's Catalyst switching unit, now a multibillion-dollar business (see Crescendo Corps Soars at Cisco).

Prior to her tenure at Cisco, Jiandani was at UB Networks since acquired by Alcatel SA (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA) – where she was responsible for virtual LANs and LAN switching market development in the U.S. and India. Before UB Networks, she worked on market development programs at Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL). Jiandani holds a BS degree in computer science from the University of London in England.But if you think you might ever like to speak with Jiandani, it might be a good idea to start arranging the meeting now. Her schedule is jam-packed and as slippery as a freshly buttered ice rink. After weeks of negotiation, we eventually landed a slot to meet her at 7 a.m. at the RBC Capital Markets storage conference in New York earlier this month. Cafiero, unbelievably, showed up for the interview, too. Result!

Read on, as Jiandani and Cafiero talk with Senior Editor Jo Maitland about Cisco's goals for the storage market.

Byte and Switch: Cisco just announced that IBM Corp. [NYSE: IBM] is going to resell its MDS 9000 Fibre Channel switches, why was IBM first? [See IBM Tells Cisco: 'Let's Go!'.]

Jiandani: We have a relationship with IBM that goes back years. Cisco sells about a $1 billion worth of gear through IBM Global Services. And in 1999 we acquired $2 billion worth of components and networking patents from them... It was a logical step for IBM's storage and server group to resell our MDS 9000 series.

Byte and Switch: Why is it IBM has a reseller deal with you guys and an OEM deal with Brocade Communications Systems Inc. [Nasdaq: BRCD]? OEM deals are better, right?Jiandani: When IBM did the Brocade deal, Brocade was an unknown company so its brand would not have made much of a difference to the sale. Cisco is a very strong brand, which is why it makes sense for IBM to resell the switches keeping the Cisco brand name.

Byte and Switch: Agreed. But Cisco isn't a brand name in storage.

Jiandani: Networking is in our DNA, Jo, and as we've said, it's all about execution.

Byte and Switch: EMC Corp. [NYSE: EMC] has let it slip a couple of times that it's almost finished qualifying the Cisco switch. When do you expect it to start selling the product?

Jiandani: We are committed to working with all the subsystem vendors, one being EMC. It's a work in progress, but we hope to have all the major ones by end of calendar Q1.Byte and Switch: How is your work coming along with Veritas Software Corp. [Nasdaq: VRTS]?

Jiandani: We have these discussions with you, but we must honor NDAs [nondisclosure agreements]. Intelligence is moving into the network, such as network-based virtualization. If you follow the track of the LAN switching market it started with basic connectivity, one port to another port, which is the state of the SAN switching market today. It's Layer 2 products with basic management. We evolved LAN switching to embedded Layer 3 and 4 through 7 switching where you look at individual packets and optimize functions in hardware.

Byte and Switch: So you are saying that storage software features, developed by partners like Veritas, are best nailed down into ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] to be controlled from the network?

Jiandani: Yes. In order not to compromise speed, a decision on what to do with a packet must happen in the network at wire speed, rather than on an end-node-to-end-node basis, which takes up CPU cycles and compromises performance. Routing used to be done in software, with off-the-shelf components, but that was when networks only operated at 10 Mbit/s. Today they are running at multigigabit speeds – 2 Gbit/s per server today – so you can get economies of scale by putting this functionality into the network.

NEXT: The Disk QuestionByte and Switch: Are there any storage functions that are best handled by the storage subsystem, not the network?

Jiandani: RAID 5 functions can be optimized at the subsystem layer, and certain app server functions need to be close to the kernel, but the network really becomes complementary to everything.

Byte and Switch: While we're talking about RAID, there have been rumors that Cisco's long-term plan is get into the disk business. Is this true?

Jiandani: Remember one thing, my dear – we would never make a public statement that we would not be getting into a certain business and then do it. The first question Mario Mazzola, Cisco's chief development officer, was asked when we went public about Andiamo Systems Inc. was whether Cisco would be getting into the disk business. He said no, and the answer is still the same.

Byte and Switch: Luca, did you want to add something?Cafiero: No... We are not getting in the disk business, not now, at least. Never is never for me!

Byte and Switch: Is that because the disk business is becoming a commodity market?

Jiandani: Jo, we are a networking company. That is what we do best, and that is the strength we are bringing to the storage market today.

Byte and Switch: What was the most satisfying feedback you heard from your beta sites?

Jiandani: They said we were hitting the sweet spot and that our troubleshooting and management tools are great, as they have never existed in the SAN world. They liked the ease of installation, and customers liked having the same Cisco CLI [command line interface] as the rest of their network. We are giving them the same look and feel.Byte and Switch: And what was the most difficult part for Cisco in entering this market?

Cafiero: [laughing loudly] Byte and Switch!

Byte and Switch: Us? Be serious. There's only two of us. Seriously, what's been the biggest challenge for Cisco entering this market?

Cafiero: Everything has been difficult at some level... Cisco working on storage is something we had to overcome on an emotional level. But we understand the logic of the switch, and we have the capability and experience to build it. Definition, that was the hardest thing. Working out what was important to build, defining a product that customers would want.

Byte and Switch: Interesting. How did you do that?Cafiero: We talk to them.

Byte and Switch: You're a marketing person, Soni – your job must be much easier now that Andiamo is no longer a big secret? [See Cisco’s Secret SAN Strategies Revealed, Cisco Owns Up to Andiamo, and Cisco Buys Andiamo.]

Jiandani: Yes, it is.

Byte and Switch: Andiamo means let's go in Italian, right? The group was supposedly given that name because a bunch of top execs at Cisco – including you, Luca – were about to do exactly that until Cisco sweetened you up with the Andiamo ticket. Is this true? [See Cisco's Creative Andiamo Options.]

Jiandani: It wasn't intentionally kept a secret. We had our heads down focused on what we had to do. You make a business decision, execute, then put your head up and talk about it; there's no point in generating noise before then. Touch, feel, deliver, and succeed.Cafiero: Andiamo was a way to expand into a new business, and a nice way to open up a new business.

NEXT: Shooting For No. 1

Byte and Switch: What are your thoughts on Brocade's acquisition of Rhapsody? Wall Street analysts said at the time that it was a knee-jerk reaction to Cisco's entrance into the market. Do you agree? [See Brocade Scoops Up Rhapsody.]

Jiandani: Typically, we don't make specific comments about competition. Success always lies in the execution... Nine years ago we were a small part of Cisco as a switching group; now we are a multibillion-dollar business. It always boils down to execution, and we must pump on all cylinders.

Byte and Switch: Do you think there will be consolidation in the Fibre Channel switch market?Jiandani: It's a $1.2 billion manufacturing revenue market today, with only two companies [Brocade and McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA)]... There's enough room for another major player. It's not what Ethernet switching was – we dealt with 3Com Corp. [Nasdaq: COMS], Alantec, Synernetics, Cabletron, Synoptics, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks Corp. [NYSE/Toronto: NT], and many others.

[Ed. note: Hmm. Not many survivors out of that lot...]

Byte and Switch: Why aren't any of the other Ethernet switch companies, like Extreme Networks Inc. [Nasdaq: EXTR] or Foundry Networks Inc.