Cisco Ready to Quit Load Balancers
This would be the Layer 4 through 7 appliance market, where F5 Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FFIV), the dominant player, has been eating into Cisco's market share for years. Other competitors include Citrix Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) and A10 Networks Inc.
ACE, which is a load balancer, has had future development cut, and salespeople are being asked to stop selling it, according to a segment of Suppiger's report published in Barron's.
A10 officals told Light Reading late Friday that they plan to aggressively expand a buyback program they've had for Cisco gear. (A10 runs buyback programs against all its competitors.) — Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading
It appears Cisco is stating this is a fact and no longer a rumor according to CRN
From the CRN article:
In a statement e-mailed to CRN, a spokesperson for Cisco said: "Cisco routinely reviews its business to determine where it needs to align investment based on growth opportunities. In assessing the data center market, which is undergoing a fundamental transformation within virtualization, cloud, and new service delivery models, Cisco has decided it will not develop further generations of its ACE load-balancing products."
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