Shock! Outrage! Horror! Disbelief!
That seemed to be the industry's reaction to Cisco's announcement (post acquisition) that they were going to end-of-life NeoPath.
You would have thought that the Earth had shifted into a new orbit.
I wasn't surprised at the news. I was surprised at the reaction.
Here's why ...
The Facts
Cisco spent about $50m to pick up a small, nascent company (NeoPath) that does file virtualization.
Although the precise definitions vary, at a high level file virtualization simply creates an abstraction layer over your existing file systems that lets you do the usual virtualization things -- consolidate, move things around on the fly, create an environment that's easier to manage, and so on.
EMC has a very successful product here, Rainfinity.
And there was NeoPath, and Acopia, and maybe a few others I've forgotten. Nice growth area. Lots of vigorous technology debates on who does it best, etc. Solves a growing problem for many customers -- file systems out of control.
And then -- quite logically -- after the acquisition, Cisco made it very clear that they bought the company to acquire the technology and expertise, rather than to sell the existing product. And, in the best interests of NeoPath customers, they said what their intent was, and what it meant.
The outrage reverberated around the internet -- here, here and here.
Whoa! Folks, you're looking at things a bit too narrowly, in my humble opinion.
First, my understanding of one aspect of Cisco's big vision is to put value-added services in the network.
Maybe that means file virtualization, and maybe it doesn't, but they're going to need some technology and expertise around understanding and adding value to file traffic over the network.
Ditto for voice, video, etc. If it's traffic over the network, and it's important, I see that Cisco wants an opportunity to add value to their ecosystem. Files should be no exception. NeoPath would give them a core asset to do that. Makes sense to me on that level.
Second, most of Cisco's business is through partners and channels. Actually, it's one aspect of their model that I wish EMC could learn to do as well, but I'll leave that for another time.
That means that if Cisco should decide to keep the product in its current form, not only would they have to train at least a non-trival portion of their field organization, but they'd have to train a non-trival portion of their entire partner ecosystem as well. Folks, trust me, that's an expensive and time-consuming proposition -- which one has to balance against revenue, margin, priorities and a bunch of other issues.
If you've never worked inside a large IT vendor, it might sound easy to just keep selling what you've bought, but in reality it's very difficult. Maybe a bit more on that in another post.
Looked at differently, for Cisco to be successful with any technology, I would think they need something that fits their business model, and file virtualization (and NeoPath) in its current form doesn't seem to fit at all, at least from my perspective.
Don't force a square peg into a round hole, unless you like splinters.
Third, if you've bought a company for technology, and realize that your current business model doesn't support the acquired offering in its current shape and form, you do the best thing and tell your newly-acquired customers what the deal is, so they can make their decisions about what they want to do next. And as I read through their announcement, they'll get the usual end-of-life support sorts of things, so it's not as draconian as you might imagine.
But what about NeoPath's customers?
Yes, I sympathize with anyone who's invested in a technology, only to find out it's end-of-life, but I would argue that -- to a certain extent -- that's an unfortunate part of the normal landscape in IT.
I'd also offer that anyone who invests in a technology from a smaller startup should be aware that there are certain risks involved (this being one of them) that should be carefully considered before you plunk down your money and take the big step.
Of course, big companies end-of-life products as well, so there are no guarantees out there, are there?
And, of course, there are alternatives.
Being the ever-loving EMC type, I'd encourage you to take a hard look at EMC's Rainfinity if you're interested in file virtualization. It's a great product with a great roadmap -- and part of the portfolio that deserves a bit more attention, IMHO. I'm sure that -- before too long -- there will be all sorts of offers and programs to address NeoPath's customers from all the file virtualization vendors.
So, I guess I reacted to the news a bit differently than most people. Seemed to make strategic sense for Cisco, and they handled NeoPath's current customers directly yet professionally.
Maybe I'm just too close to it all, but I think they did the right thing.
Comments