What do you get the company that has everything? Or at least thinks they do? As we head off to the holidays, I thought I would offer up some gifts Santa might want to consider giving to the tech industry.
To the tech industry in general: A return to some kind of normal spending patterns. A prolonged hold on spending could freeze innovation, which just adds to the mess we're looking at next year.
I alphabetized the rest of these as to not show any bias...
For 3Com: Some case studies to show off their technology, which is actually pretty good. It's just no one seems to know about it.
For Avaya: An order of magnitude increase in the number of corporate developers and actual ISVs as part of the DevConnect community. While it's great there are Ethernet switch and fax board companies as part of this community, it's the transition to software that's going to make Avaya either a long term market leader or just another UC vendor.
For Cisco: Actually formally launching "Cisco Developer Network" to go along with their software strategy (See above!). CDN seems to exist in pockets with AXP (application extension platform), with VTG (voice technology group) and MSE (mobile services engine) but there doesn't seem to be a company-wide initiative. It would seem kind of important for "network as a platform." A second present would be a bullet-proof vest. With moves into the data center, software as a service and with consumer, many other companies, some of them Cisco's friends, will be putting Cisco directly in their competitive cross hairs.
For F5 and Riverbed: A merger or at least tight partnership between the two companies. F5 is the market leader in optimizing applications in the data center and Riverbed is the market leader in optimization at the branch and mobile level. The two together would make a great underdog story, as the combined entity could go battle the 800-pound gorilla, Cisco. If F5 isn't going to merge or partner with Riverbed, then Santa should leave some iRules for WANJet under the tree, creating some long awaited value for F5 with that product.
For HP Procurve: Some kahunas to go the wall in its competition with Cisco. HP has finally rolled Procurve into the TSG organization, leveled out compensation for its sales people, has told the industry it's going after Cisco share and is now building some more competitive products. HP will soon find that taking share from Cisco is much different than taking share from the likes of Extreme, Nortel and 3Com. I think it creates a great, long term competitive environment, puts a nail in the coffin of the Cisco-HP relationship and creates some excitement for the industry.
For Juniper: Santa should leave multiple gifts here. A wireless LAN solution, a unified communications solution and an actual enterprise channel to sell it through. Currently Juniper can create a best of breed story but not an end to end story. If it's ever going to compete with Cisco in the enterprise in a serious way, it will need to build the portfolio out.
For Nortel: A big pile of cash to get it out of debt and build some new products. Even that may not help the beleaguered company but as a fellow Canadian, it would be nice to see them come out of this mess.
For Polycom: A great gift for Polycom would be the continued push of video by the likes of Cisco and Microsoft. Cisco and Microsoft go out and create the vision and user demand and Polycom winds up being the winner by being the de facto standard for corporate video. A great stocking stuffer for Polycom would be rapid growth of SIP, meaning buyers wouldn't be tied to the PBX vendors' phones, creating broader opportunity for Polycom.
For VoiceCon and TechWeb: The continued transition of VoiceCon away from bellheads and success in the on going shift to things that matter like communications enabled business and software strategies (at least they matter to me!). Personally, nojitter.com has been a great resource for opinions and analysis of current events from some of the best names in this industry. The transition from paper BCR to web based nojitter has been great and I hope to see more Web 2.0 things on this site next year. Eric and Fred, thanks for having me be part of your conferences and this site.
Lastly, one last Christmas wish to Lou D'Ambrosio. For Lou, who is one of the nicest, most genuine guys in the industry, a quick recovery and good, long healthy life. I miss seeing Lou on stage taking shots at both Microsoft and Cisco. The industry needs more guys like Lou around and we were better off with him than without him. For now though, his family needs him more than the industry. Take care Lou, my thoughts are with you this holiday season.
On that note, I want to thank everyone that read and commented on my stuff. As John Chambers would say, "If you've agreed with everything I've said then I've failed." Have a great Christmas and a happy New Years (unless you're Huawei, then New Year's comes later!)
