But Cisco has a plan to bounce back, based on leadership in SDN, cloud, collaboration, and Internet of Everything, company CEO and chairman John Chambers says.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

May 20, 2014

3 Min Read
Cisco's Chambers Predicts 'Brutal' Tech Consolidation

SAN FRANCISCO -- CiscoLive -- Tech companies will see "brutal, brutal consolidation," with most of today's leaders falling, Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers said at his keynote here Monday.

"If you look at the top companies in the industry, most of them will not exist in a meaningful way in 10 years," Chambers said. "You're going to see a brutal, brutal consolidation of the IT industry." He singled out HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) as two companies that have failed to produce revenue.

Companies that produce standalone products rather than complete architectures will be in trouble, Chambers said. "This is where individual companies will get squeezed between Cisco and white labels."

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), which has its own problems, has a plan for bouncing back, based on leading in SDN, collaboration, cloud, and Internet of Everything. Cisco plans to be number one in all those markets, Chambers said. (See Cisco Earnings Suffer From Carrier Weakness.)

As part of its collaboration strategy, Cisco on Monday introduced two new devices designed to bring affordable, high-quality videoconferencing to the desktop. The DX80 is a high-performance videoconferencing system that doubles as a computer monitor, while the DX70 has a smaller display with the same videoconferencing hardware. (See Cisco Wants to Tidy Up Desktop Videoconferencing.)

Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) is core to its SDN strategy. "We will be the best implementation of SDN in the world," Chambers said. As part of ACI, Cisco introduced its WAN Automation Engine Sunday and tools for integrating virtual and physical networks on Friday. Also on Sunday, top Cisco executives discussed how SDN can help cut costs, increase agility and revenue for enterprises and service providers. (See Cisco Intros Automated WAN Management, Cisco Integrates Virtual, Physical Networks, and Cisco Drops the S-Bomb.)

And Intercloud, a network of clouds built by Cisco and service provider partners, is key to Cisco’s cloud strategy, driving Cisco from top private cloud vendor to top of hybrid cloud, Chambers said. (See Cisco's Cloud Bet: What's in It for SPs?.)

Jim Grubb, Cisco chief demonstration officer, took the stage to show how the Internet of Everything can be used to improve railroad performance, achieving, it is claimed, 40% more usage out of existing tracks with increased safety. These kinds of improvements will be available for every form of transportation, Chambers said.

Alan Matula, executive vice president and CIO of Royal Dutch Shell, then joined Chambers to describe how that company is working with Cisco to improve shale oil mining, which requires drilling hundreds of wells. Cisco helps Shell collect information about those wells to improve efficiency.

— Mitch Wagner, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profileFollow me on Facebook, West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].

Want to learn more about SDN and the transport network? Check out the agenda for Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE), which will take place on June 17 and 18 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The event combines the educational power of interactive conference sessions devised and hosted by Heavy Reading's experienced industry analysts with multi-vendor interoperability and proof-of-concept networking and application showcases. For more on the event, the topics, and the stellar service provider speaker lineup, see Telecommunication Luminaries to Discuss the Hottest Industry Trends at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event in June.

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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