Mohamed, The short answer to your original question... No, Cisco will not die. They are too entrenched in the corporate networks to die. However, they certainly will not be as dominate in the service provider space (i.e., telcos, ISPs, ASPs, etc.) as they are in the enterprise (corporate) market. Now the longer answer... I think you hit the nail right on the head. The small, specialized companies are causing problems for Cisco in the service provider market. The niche players are becoming very good (very quickly I might add) in their respective areas. Juniper in core routers and Extreme in core switches are excellent examples of this. I think Cisco is finding it difficult to beat out all of these niche players in their respective areas. Will one niche player like a Juniper "kill" Cisco? Absolutely not...not on their own. However, while Cisco is almost untouchable in the enterprise market, the combination of these niche companies (Juniper + Extreme + Sycamore + Ciena + etc.) could pose a huge obstacle in Cisco's quest for market share in the service provider space. Also, keep in mind that as the Junipers of the world get bigger, their market cap also grows. For Cisco, this means that the "can't beat them, but them" option becomes less of a reality. Last point: In the SP (service provider) space, end-to-end solutions mean less than in the enterprise market. Been in a central office lately? You'll likely find Cisco, Lucent, Nortel, Ciena, Tellabs, ADC, and a bunch of others. In a perfect world, a single vendor end-to-end solution would be great (especially from a network management perspective). But a lot of SPs often want best-in-class for each individual product type (routers, switches, ADMs, cross-connects, etc). End-to-end is of secondary importance in the SP market and SPs are where Cisco is now putting its focus. Regards. Marcus P.S. The CCIE is indeed safe. It will retain it's value for long time. At 03:21 PM 12/11/2000 +0400, you wrote: hi guys just coming now from extreme presentation .looks like they have much more stronger products than cisco (in giga swtiches of course )....do u think guys that Cisco is going to die because of small focused companies like extreme and jinper ??? if anyone feel interested ..we would like to discuss this Mohamed _________________________________ FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________ FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
