Cisco Rethinks Linksys

It has been the elephant in the room for three years now, but Cisco executives are finally willing to talk about it. Ever since Cisco launched its broad push into what it calls the SMB market, the question of Linksys has been hanging all over the effort.

After all, even before Cisco bought the well-established consumer wireless player, Linksys had already begun recruiting VARs for its own push upmarket into the small-business space. So, if Cisco is pushing down and Linksys is pushing up, what exactly happens when they meet?

LARRY HOOPER Can be reached via e-mail at lrhooper@cmp.com.

The answer to that question hasn't been particularly clear over the past three years. First it was a size issue. Linksys gets the really small businesses, the five- to 20-user scenarios on average, topping out at 100 or so users. Linksys proceeded to launch a small-business voice line, Layer 3 switches and even NAS devices.

Meanwhile, Cisco launched its SMB Select program to recruit SMB-focused VARs and began rolling out SMB products that were squarely within the "M" segment of SMB. So despite the lack of a clear distinction, the products sorted it out for the channel in the end.

But a funny thing happened in Las Vegas at the Cisco Partner Summit. Cisco launched an all-in-one voice and data solution for small businesses, designed for eight users. Eight users? What gives here? Is Cisco killing Linksys?

Nigel Williams, who runs channel operations at Linksys, explained it to me. Cisco over the past year has been doing some serious thinking about the Linksys questions, he said. And they have quite a few of them answered.

CRNTV: Linksys President Charles Giancarlo
On The Vendor's SMB Plans

Yes, Cisco and Linksys products will overlap, he said. Pulling out the old auto industry metaphor, Williams said it makes sense for Cisco and solution providers to have both a best-in-class and a value product line, just like Toyota and Lexus. Most Cisco VARs already have a value line in their mix. Williams wants that line to be Linksys, which isn't the case right now. So, Cisco and Linksys are going to make it easier for solution providers to carry both, he said.

As Williams sees it, the choice is up to the customer. Customers that want scalability and a migration path will opt for Cisco, while the established small businesses that do not see IT as core will opt for Linksys.

Time will tell if the elephant will actually leave the room, but it seems as if there is at least a plan to get it moving.

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