Used Cisco

“Cisco set to fight aftermarket sellers”
-Taken from Networkworld.com’s Cisco Subnet Community Blog
-This opening Blog discusses the current conflict of interests between Cisco Systems and the secondary market. Check out the link at the bottom page to see replies to this Blog.

The Cisco secondary market has been one of the hot topics of discussion in the Cisco Subnet forums and news from this week's Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas is likely to get some chatter going again.

Network World Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth reports that Cisco's Brand Protection group is revving up an international brand protection campaign, with a simple message for Cisco partners and customers: genuine Cisco gear only comes from Cisco and its partners.
"We're going to be stepping that up in our fiscal year '08, where we'll be putting much more emphasis in overall communications to end-users and the channel," says Philip Wright, director of worldwide brand protection at Cisco.

Wright claims that buying aftermarket Cisco gear from dealers in the market "run a good chance of picking up counterfeit equipment."

While the danger of getting fake gear through aftermarket dealers may exist, industry experts say incorporating used network equipment into an overall equipment-buying strategy can be a useful cost-saving tactic. One strategy is to use aftermarket Cisco switches as hot spares, letting IT staff replace failed equipment with working gear immediately, and without paying for costlier same-day replacements from Cisco.

Read Phil's full story and then jump in (hit 'reply') with your views. Is Cisco scaremongering to protect its revenue, or is it working hard to protect users from fake goods?

Original URL: http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13336