re: HFR, Where Are You?Funny how the subject of this whole article is the HFR. But then the focus of the chat is Juniper and Procket. I guess that says alot about what's really on people's minds.
Given what I've seen of the HRF so far in "beta", I envision a future core made of Juniper and Procket boxes. Cisco is being challenged Big Time ... in the core.
Since you seem to know more about HFR then any articals read about this box would you mind sharing what you know? Is it not stable? is really in beta? features? Well if your involved in beta then i guess your under NDA and you can't share much :( I guess we've read too much high level stuff, it would be nice to see how it stands against others in its class.
re: HFR, Where Are You?Market share, market share, and market share. Procket is getting fractions of a percent of the core router market. There are 3 major core router players (Avici is now major with Nortel's distribution) as of now and until that changes, there is little reason to discuss other vendors.
Cisco would never buy a complete router company (only components). Otherwise they'd admit the founding technology of the company failed to keep up with market needs. No amount of spin could help them explain that move.
re: HFR, Where Are You?"Funny how the subject of this whole article is the HFR. But then the focus of the chat is Juniper and Procket. I guess that says alot about what's really on people's minds."
Actually I don't think it is funny at all as the only reason these message boards are littered with Procket is because Procket continues to try to get attention as a serious player. When a LR article does not mention them, the posters come out in full force. Until they have a real customer they don't count. Any serious carrier would be insane to bet their company on an unproven player. Other parts of the network maybe we're willing to give a startup a shot, at the core? No, we've learned from Bubble days. I respect Tony Li and his accomplishments, but he is only one guy and the days of him being able to recreate success he had with Cisco and Juniper disappeared by way of the bubble.
New Procket CEO: Let's not forget the reason he left Cisco for Procket, Mike Volpi is running the routing show at Cisco and he had been pushed aside over the last 2 years and had several levels between him and John Chambers. Cisco blamed him for their market share loss to Juniper a few years ago. Procket was his only shot at CEO. Is Cisco planning to replace him? No, they are taking his "responsibilities" and splitting them among 4 other VPs. Are they concerned about him or Procket or that he left for Procket? At that level you sign a non-compete, did Cisco go after him for going to Procket? No, they wished him well. Procket thought they would have been bought out or had a strategic alliance with a multinational by end of '04 and they saw their hopes for this go out the window when Nortel decided to go with Avici. Alcatel is the only other one left, but they believe they can take Timetra and make it into core box (unclear if this can be done, but they'll attempt it) and as Procket is neither core nor edge, it overlaps with Timetra.
The other misconception in US has been that NTT PC is a service provider or a serious channel into NTT. NTT PC is not a SP, it is a reseller and NTT has 100's of subsidiaries. NTT PC is not any better at penetrating NTT East, West, Commns, etc than any other major SI in Japan.
re: HFR, Where Are You?Don't discount Chiaro. They have two versions of a core router, each on the same scale as the HFR. And they work! They have both the optical core device (probably bleeding edge) and a regular core router with lots of teeth.
I don't work for Chiaro... honest.
We've been internally betting for some time that Chiaro would be an ideal acquisition target for Cisco. They are located near the 15600 group in the Dallas area. Site integration would be easy. And the HFR just keeps slipping, and slipping, and slipping .... stressful.
re: HFR, Where Are You? Chiaro has a single & multi chassis system scaling up to 32 chassis max cap. 6.3 Tbit/s
I've seen your chassis. It would appear that you need to do significant amount of integration to make it into deployable router. What is that external ethernet switch you are using? It looks like an Avaya switch--it even has same color and appears as if you've simply removed the label. I counted multiple boxes for a few line cards (and I mean under 10) and switch fabric. How many chassis to get to 6.3 Tbps?
Your CEO has also gone out his way to reassure potential customers that you would be signing a deal with a broad-shouldered partner and not to worry about your startup status.
Ken Lewis from comments he made in Oct'03 in a trade pub.
We want more than just a reseller. "It needs to be a marriage as opposed to a dating relationship. Somewhere between a serious equity play and an acquisition."
Is there an engagement party planned? And who is the fiancee?
re: HFR, Where Are You?> Any serious carrier would be insane to bet > their company on an unproven player.
"like they did with Juniper 5 years ago?"
I'd love to agree with you, but market dynamics completely different than they were 5 years ago. Carriers selected Juniper 5 years as second source to Cisco, not because what they offered was a radically different value proposition. And I think Tony has built a slightly improved version of what he helped build at Cisco, then Juniper. And, I know a lot of the other engineers that worked at Cisco and Juniper and it was team effort, not a one-man show.
There are 3 core vendors already deployed in large carrier networks, although Avici needs a second major carrier win to move into big leagues with Cisco and Juniper.
I have to believe Nortel evaluated everyone out there, including Procket. If nothing else as a kimono opening exercise to see what they had. They chose to walk away.
First Procket tried to spread rumors of potential acquisition with Lucent, then Nortel, who's left? Alcatel won't touch them since they already have Timetra and I agree with one of the other posts, Cisco cannot buy a routing company which was suggested by another Procket poster. They will buy routing pieces, but it would be admitting failure to buy a routing company. Even John who is consumate salesguy couldn't sell around Cisco being incapable of developing routing technology.
My advice to Procket would be to position box as edge box since and they are straddling the fence anyway.
Given what I've seen of the HRF so far in "beta", I envision a future core made of Juniper and Procket boxes. Cisco is being challenged Big Time ... in the core.