Cisco dominates LAN switch market in EMEA

Networking giant Cisco regained market share lost in previous quarters, according to IDC’s first quarter research on the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) LAN switch market. The research showed that while the LAN switch market in EMEA continued to grow in terms of revenue the actual number of port shipments declined.

According to the numbercrunchers at IDC, port shipments fell 2.9% sequentially from a figure of 20.5 million ports in the fourth quarter of 2005 to 19.9 million ports in the first quarter of 2006. Despite this slight decline revenues increased 2.6% sequentially US$1.3 billion. “In the first quarter of 2006, Cisco proved again to be a very strong market leader in the EMEA LAN switch market by winning back all the market share it lost in the previous quarters,” said Peter Hulleman, research manager with IDC’s European telecommunications and networking group. Cisco (excluding Linksys) continued to lead the LAN switch market, increasing its market share to 35.3% in terms of port shipments in the first quarter of 2006.

In terms of revenue share, Cisco picked up 69.9% of the market in the first quarter of 2006, compared to 65.8% in the fourth quarter of 2005. The average sales price (ASP) of LAN switches in EMEA rose sharply to US$65.3 per port — an increase of 5.6% on the previous quarter. IDC attributed this rise to Cisco’s success in EMEA and the fact that the vendor sells a high proportion of high-end LAN switches with relatively high ASPs.

The increase in ASP was also partly due to the growth of the gigabit nonmodular segment of the market, according to IDC. Fast Ethernet port shipments slipped 5.6% during the first quarter of 2006 to 14.9 million ports with revenues from this sector dropping 2.3% to US$397.1m as a result.

In contrast, Gigabit Ethernet port shipments jumped 6.2% to 5 million ports pushing revenues up 5.4% to US$845.4m. While Cisco continued to dominate the market, other vendors made significant headway during the first quarter with both Force10 and F5 achieving double-digit percentage increases in terms of both port shipments and revenues. Linksys — a business unit of Used Cisco — also managed to achieve this level of growth.

Google’s Unified Tools Pose a Threat to Cisco

Officials at Cisco Systems Inc. say they are closely watching Google Inc.’s aggressive foray onto their unified communications turf and plan to respond quickly by boosting the capabilities of Cisco’s offerings.

In fact, analysts said Cisco’s announcement late last month that it plans to offer at least some pieces of its IP voice technology as a hosted service could be viewed as a direct response to Google’s recent move to start limited release of its Web-based Google Voice and Google Wave communications tools.

During a press briefing at the Cisco Live user conference in San Francisco late last month, Doug Dennerline, Cisco’s senior vice president of collaboration software, acknowledged the challenge from Google and said his company is set to “invent and reinvent” its unified communications offerings.

Analysts said that the Google Voice Internet telephony service, now available to early users by invitation, and Google Wave, a hosted collaboration and communications service released to developers early this month, may pose long-term problems for companies like Cisco and Microsoft Corp.

The Google products could provide users with a less expensive common platform for delivering messaging, voice and video services to consumers and office workers, they said.

The Google Voice service was launched in March for a limited customer base: users of its predecessor, Grand Central, a service the search vendor had acquired almost two years earlier. Late last month, Google began inviting selected new users to the service, which has attracted widespread attention for its call-screening capabilities and its ability to provide a single phone number for multiple devices.

The company did not say when the free service will be generally available.

Google Wave, which has been in development for about two years, promises to give users a single platform for accessing e-mail, instant messaging, blog, wiki, multimedia management and document-sharing tools. Google also hasn’t said when Google Wave will be widely available.

Though the Google offerings appear to be aimed primarily at consumers, they could quickly become attractive to small businesses, and eventually to large companies, if the products can overcome the privacy concerns raised by storing phone messages and other confidential data on third-party systems, analysts said.

Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc., said it could take some time for Google’s product features to match those of Cisco, Microsoft and voice-switching vendors like Avaya Inc. or Siemens AG. But he predicted that over the “long term, Google will have a significant role” in the business.

Some observers said that Google’s maneuverings could hurt Cisco in particular as it tries to expand into the consumer market, long a Google stronghold.

For example, Cisco in March announced plans to buy Pure Digital Technologies Inc., maker of the Flip handheld camera used mostly by consumers. Cisco officials have also disclosed that the company is developing a consumer version of its TelePresence videoconferencing system.

“We think video is going to be very key in driving the next level of collaboration — Internet video, desktop video and consumer TelePresence,” said Padmasree Warrior, Cisco’s chief technology officer.

Cisco officials released few details of the company’s plan to offer some virtual voice services, though Warrior said they will probably be offered through its service provider customers.

Cisco Plan Green Data Centers ?

Cisco is no stranger to the green IT scene. It has publicly announced its smart grid intentions and, for years, has touted the carbon-cutting benefits of its teleconferencing technologies. But when it comes to data centers, Cisco has been outgunned by its rivals.

While IBM mounted huge campaigns like Big Green and Smarter Planet, the computer networking giant has kept a comparatively low eco-profile. So far, Cisco’s green efforts boil down to dabbling in energy management, moving into the smart grid, cutting the energy consumption of its network hardware and reducing packaging — an odd state of affairs considering the company’s position as a prime supplier of data center–focused IT equipment.

But in recent weeks, Cisco has been demonstrating that it does indeed have a green data center strategy, even if it isn’t shouting it from the rooftops. This week’s roll out of EnergyWise 2.0 — an upgraded version of its network energy management tool — expanded its reach into a network’s nooks and crannies and opened up the platform to developers to help lay the groundwork for energy-aware networks. The company is also making a play for the containerized data-center market, centered around fast and efficient Lego-style data center builds.

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Core Knowledge Waiver for Cisco 360 Candidates

As the only CCIE training program authorized by Cisco, the Cisco 360 Learning Program is designed to accelerate expert-level competency and provide the tools that are needed to prepare candidates for the rigorous CCIE Routing and Switching and Voice lab exams.

Beginning April 1, 2010, Cisco will allow students who attend a Cisco 360 Learning Program workshop to request a waiver and skip the Core Knowledge section of the CCIE R&S or Voice lab exam.

Participating Cisco Authorized Learning Partners now also offer discounted Cisco 360 Learning Program bundles of R&S Self-Paced Lessons and Performance Assessments, providing students with additional training options. Check with your local Learning Partner for details. Finally, the eight Cisco 360 Learning Program R&S Self-Paced Lessons and four comprehensive lab-quality Performance Assessments are now available on the Cisco Learning Network Store.