In those cases, SAP and MCI WorldCom weren't necessarily the former, but they certainly were the latter. But Sun's reluctance to own up to its problems could cost it customers, who are bothered more by finger-pointing and denials than by technical mistakes that could otherwise have been headed off with a heads up from Sun. As senior writer Mitch Wagner reports in his page 10 story, one burned dotcom says it may replace some Solaris servers with IBM AIX or Intel-architecture systems to become less reliant on Sun. Just about every vendor retreats into bunker mode at one time or another. Cisco comes as close to this ideal as any IT vendor.
Cisco realizes that products can become commodities.
Relationships create value and long-term bonds. Cisco isn't nearly perfect. No vendor is. Drop us a line at the address below. Robert Preston is editor in chief of InternetWeek.