The little blemish on his resume of failing to pull off Microsoft's bid to aquire Yahoo didn't deter Juniper from naming Microsoft veteran Kevin Johnson as CEO, replacing Scott Kriens who continues as chairman. According to an IDG News Services story, news of Johnson's departure from Microsoft comes just a week after the company released financial earnings dragged down by its online services group. Johnson was tapped by Kriens and Juniper CTO and founder Pradeep Sindhu, for his background in engineering and experience in scaling and leading companies through rapid growth, according to the Juniper leaders. Johnson is challenged with leading the Cisco rival through its growth stage beyond $1 billion. What do you think of Johnson's chances against John Chambers? READ MORE
It's eerily quiet on the Cisco M&A front, notes the Inorganic Growth blog. While the market dissects 
Brocade's $3 billion purchase of Foundry and what it means to Cisco, Inorganic Growth blogs that Cisco has hardly used M&A at all this year - highly unusual for a firm that at one stage pocketed a company a month. So far this year, Cisco has purchased three smaller companies - home networking vendor Pure Networks, digital-service management firm DiviTech, and data center switch start-up Nuova. It also made a strategic investment in femtocell manufacturer IP Access
Once described by Cisco as an "isolated problem" the network giant has made its biggest move yet to 
stamp out exam cheating. Beginning Aug. 1, candidates will receive preliminary score reports imprinted with their photos and unique authentication codes, among other measures.
Cisco emerged as the most familiar manufacturer cited by service providers who were questioned about their perceptions of the main VoIP vendors. Cisco, Acme Packets, Alcatel-Lucent and Sonus, were identified as the "top VoIP equipment manufacturers," by service providers interviewed by Infonetics Research. However Cisco lost to Sonus in scoring the highest rating for technology, product roadmap, security, management, and price-to-performance ratio. The survey was conducted for Infonetics' Service Provider Plans for VoIP report.
Cisco buys Pure Networks for Linksys division07/23/08Cisco has dug a little into its pocket to purchase privately held Pure Networks, a Seattle-based provider of
home networking-management software and tools. Pure Networks, which will be integrated into Linksys, enables consumers to set up a home network connecting a range of devices, applications and services, says Cisco. Pure already partners with Cisco to provide the software infrastructure and tools used to create the Linksys Easy Link Advisor (LELA), aimed at smoothing the process of organizing and managing a home network, according to Cisco. The network giant will pay approximately $120 million in exchange for all shares of Pure Networks and the purchase is expected to close in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2009.
Be careful how you tweet. Blogger gadgetguy.de is asking whether Cisco is automatically spamming 
Twitters. Just a minute after updating his Twitter account with a remark about how installing a Cisco 5-port mini switch has improved his network storage appliance, he received an e-mail saying that Cisco IT (ciscoit) is following him on Twitter. He writes: "You tell me that’s not a bot? Can anybody else try to verify this (just tweet something with “cisco” in the text)."
The result of Brocade's $3 billion acquisition of Foundry is expected to present customers with a viable 
alternative to Cisco in the data center. As customers weigh the pros and cons of emerging data center technologies, such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet - which is being backed by Brocade and Cisco - a combined Foundry-Brocade wants to be on every Cisco customer's radar. But does Brocade-Foundry have what it takes to take on Cisco? Here's a quick roundup of what the analysts are saying:
Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22, 2 - 3 p.m. ET for Network World's first-ever live "face-off" chat. Security experts Joel Snyder versus Richard Stiennon will duel over the question "Is network access control a worthwhile technology?" Joel Snyder says yes and Richard Stiennon says no. Come join us for this live debate where two of the industry's most outspoken (and entertaining) security pros will explain their positions. Each guest will answer the same question, have the chance to rebut the other's answers and to quiz one another. Attendees will also be invited to submit questions and share opinions. Snyder is a senior partner with Opus One, a consulting firm in Tucson, AZ, and a member of Network World Lab Alliance. He has been working with networks and information security since 1981 and has penned several books. Stiennon is a security consultant, popular speaker and founder of Seccom Global, a managed security service provider focused on unified threat management. He writes the Stiennon on Security blog for Network World. As always, no registration is necessary for live Network World chat. Just login at www.networkworld.com/chat/
The Cisco employees who will succeed at the company will be the ones who thrive at being moved to different business functions - IT, finance, customer service, manufacturing - and can work on any cross-
functional projects. They won't be paid for their current skills but instead be paid for their leadership abilities and willingness to learn new things. That's the new work life at Cisco as it transforms from a top-down organization to one that encourages collaboration and teamwork at all levels, according to a Q&A by Federal Computer Week with Randy Pond, Cisco’s executive vice president of operations, processes and systems.
Dell Oro Group take on Foundry and Brocade merger: Datacenter requirements are evolving towards converged fabricNetworking market research firm, the Dell'Oro Group, provided their insight regarding the recently announced Brocade/Foundry merger: "Brocade’s recent purchase of Foundry is an excellent example of two companies combining to address ...Read more
Brad Reese is research manager at BradReese.Com, advancing the careers of 1 million certified individuals in the growing Cisco Career Certification Program.
Get Smart about CCNA Security – Part 2 of 2(Wendell here - Kevin's wrapping up today on CCNA Security - thanks, Kevin!) Kevin Wallace, CCIE #7945, CCSI, CCSP, CCNP, CCDP, CCVP, is a full-time instructor of Cisco courses for SkillSoft ...Read more
Wendell Odom, CCIE No, 1624, splits time between writing books for Cisco Press and teaching classes for Skyline ATS. His books include titles on QoS, CCIE R/S, as well as several titles related to CCNA certification, including his newest book Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Read a sneak peek of chapter 7). Follow Wendell's blog here. More free chapters from other Cisco Press books here.
Brocade Buying Foundry...Has to be an FCoE PlayMy first reaction to Brocade buying Foundry yesterday was "hmmmmmmmmm". I was scratching my head as to why Brocade would want to jump into the highly commoditized LAN switching ...Read more
Morris is a Technical Team Lead and Network Architect at a $3 billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos, and developing large-scale routing designs.
The JUNOS Software ArchitectureIn the previous post I gave you the briefest insight into the JUNOS software architecture by telling you that its kernel is based on FreeBSD. Juniper developers start turning ...Read more
Jeff is president of Jeff Doyle and Associates, an IP networking consultancy, and author of Routing TCP/IP, Volumes I (read an excerpt) and II. Read the transcript of our live online text chat with Jeff entitled "IPv6: Will matter to the enterprise in five years."
Cisco releases new security features, a capture feature, and new IOS upgrade tools Cisco just released updated router IOS code,12.4(20)T, with several very interesting new security features and a packet capture feature you might be interested in. You can even use ...Read more
Jamey Heary, CCIE No. 7680, is a security consulting systems engineer at Cisco. Jamey is the author of Cisco NAC Appliance: Enforcing Host Security with Clean Access. Read a chapter from the book here. Follow Jamey's blog here. More free chapters from other Cisco Press books here.
Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) Practical Exam Beta for $980, will you take it?I got this information today and wanted to pass it along to everyone. I have a question for everyone also, will you take it and do you think it should ...Read more
Larry Chaffin, Ph.D, is the CEO/chairman and founder of Pluto Networks a consulting company specializing in VoIP, WLAN and security. He is also author of a number of books including Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, and Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1.
RFC 2833 DTMF RelayThe last blog entry covered DTMF relay. This blog entry will focus on Cisco IP Phone and Cisco SIP Trunk DTMF relay support. Cisco’s first generation of IP ...Read more
Dennis Hartmann, CCIE No. 15651, is a unified communications consultant and author of Implementing Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Part 1. Dennis is also a lead instructor at Global Knowledge.
Software as the New FrontierEvery now and then, something happens in the IT industry that causes wholesale changes to the way we do business. The advent of the Internet is the most recent ...Read more
Ken Presti is president of Presti Research & Consulting, Inc., which specializes in go-to-market strategies for technology vendors and service providers.
Brocade Buys Foundry: Good Idea?So, Brocade has bought Foundry. I may be wrong, but to me it looks like these companies have gazed into the future, not liked what they have seen, and jumped into each other's ...Read more
Mark Lewis (CCIE#6280) is an independent consultant who helps service provider and large enterprise clients design and implement leading-edge technologies. Mark has designed and implemented a variety of large-scale technology solutions including VPN, MPLS, QoS, data center, and IP telephony. Mark is the author of Comparing, Designing, and Deploying VPNs; Troubleshooting Virtual Private Networks; and CCIE Voice Exam Quick Reference Sheets.
How Long Does It Take?Most folks who pursue a CCNA certification find that it's a time-consuming process. If you do it completely via self-study, a CCNA can take you months to achieve. The Professional-level ...Read more
Rus Healy, CCIE #15025, is a Principal SE at Annese & Associates, and the co-author of our July book-giveaway, CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, Third Edition. Enter to win one of 15 copies.
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Cisco aims to combat cheating by imprinting photos on tester's score reports
UNEDA: Cisco secondary market is not the Cisco gray market
The JUNOS software architecture
How long does it take to earn a CCIE?
Cisco Forums at Networking-Forum.com
Multiple holes found, fixed in Cisco SNMPv3
Multiple Cisco products contain one of two authentication vulnerabilities in the Simple Network Management Protocol version 3 (SNMPv3) feature. The holes can be exploited when processing a malicious SNMPv3 message and could allow the attacker to obtain network information or even perform configuration changes to vulnerable devices. READ MORE.
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Cisco security advisories
WIN FREE BOOKS. We're giving away 15 copies of the Cisco Press book CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, 3rd Edition by By Wendell Odom, Rus Healy, Naren Mehta (a $89.99 value). Enter to win by clicking here. Deadline for entry is July 31. Plus, read Chapter 1: Ethernet Basics.
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Cisco has launched a support wiki for partners and customers to share their knowledge of Cisco gear on top of Cisco documents. According to Cisco: "This augmentation of knowledge gives our user community a medium to share knowledge and improve their overall effectiveness."
VIDEORob Salvagno, senior director of Business Development, discusses Cisco's Nuova acquisition, a follow-on to Cisco's initial investment in August 2006. Nuova's first product is the Nexus 5000.
VIDEOJapan's NTT Group deploys new Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers to deliver advanced services. (3:54)
PODCASTTop analyst discusses edge networking trends and environmental and cost of ownership benefits that new Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers deliver to service providers relative to competitive solutions. (10:37)
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