The 10 Biggest Networking Stories Of 2010

The Year In Networking

And here the networking channel thought 2010 couldn't possibly be more exciting than the wild and woolly 2009 of acquisitions, rivalries and technology milestones. But with the major vendors in the space making game-changing, head-cracking, market-shaking moves on an almost weekly basis, it was hard to catch one's breath at times. Here's a recap of 10 stories that made 2010 a notable year in networking.

1. Cisco's Supply Chain Nightmare

As channel headaches go, this was an unrelenting, draw-the-shades migraine: a year-long shortage of Cisco products, particularly in security appliances and data center switches, that left partners without critical network and data center building blocks at a most inopportune time. While Cisco's product lead times were normal by the end of the calendar year, the ripple effects from the supply chain issue were long felt: competitive wins by Cisco rivals taking advantage of the networking titan's shortcomings, an unprecedented influx of Cisco product -- and business -- in the gray market, and a frustrated community of Cisco solution providers and distributors that spent much of the first half of 2010 seeking answers.

Cisco was hardly alone in supply chain issues, and the root causes of the problem were not of its own making. But the criticism Cisco received was as much for how it communicated the scope of the problem as the product shortages themselves.

2. The Battle For Video

If last year was the year the videoconferencing market consolidated, this was the year it became a no-holds-barred fight for unified communications channel supremacy. And all against the backdrop of Apple's iPhone 4 launch, which puts videoconferencing into the hands of hipsters. Top of the list was Cisco, which closed its acquisition of worldwide videoconferencing leader Tandberg.

Meanwhile, Polycom continued an all-out channel revamp that many partners said was long overdue while also strengthening ties with strategic vendor partnersall over the video space, and snagging some key executives, including former Cisco UC boss Joe Burton.

Scrappier players like LifeSize and Vidyo also made waves, as did networking powerhouses like HP, Avaya, IBM, all of whom have charted new video territory, from partnerships to UC endpoints to new, video-battle-tested executive maneuvers.

3. The Great Convergence

There's a seismic shift happening in the networking IT channel, and while it's going to continue to play out for some time -- and has been predicted and analyzed for years -- it may well be 2010 that's remembered as the tipping point. That shift? The ongoing convergence of the IT and telecom channels, and the creation of a strange, post-apocalyptic kind of world where each formerly disparate channel can practice many of the other's core competencies -- and sell using those competencies.

For every IT-oriented VAR that's adopted managed services or launched a hosted IP services practice or resells a value-added cloud platform of some kind, there's also a telecom agent adopting application support or hosted e-mail to go along with the world of SLAs and telecom services he knows and loves. Some are selling hardware, too. Rest assured this story is just beginning, and,thanks to the overwhelming interest in cloud computing as efficiency-maker, money-saver and convenience-creator, it's a discussion that'll dominate the networking market for years to come.

4. It's The Software, Stupid

There's a big reason why the November debut of Microsoft's Lync (pictured) was one of the most anticipated UC product releases of the year. Sure, it's Microsoft making good on a promise to update its former Office Communications Server with a fresh release. But more than that, it's a big, fat flag planted in the name of software becoming the dominant technology segment for unified communications.

It isn't just Microsoft, either. Look at Mitel, going all-in with a new, cloud-based software stream architecture called Freedom. And how about Avaya, continuing to organize many of its UC products around Aura, its virtualized UC platform that's the underpinning of its collaboration dashboard, the Flare Experience.

For all the networking and telecommunications VARs who never thought they'd have to focus on software sales going forward, well, welcome to the new world.

5. Ethernet Switching Bounces Back

Ethernet switches are still, in many respects, the bread and butter of the networking channel, and in 2010, the economic picture for switching got a lot better. In late August, IDC said year-over-year revenue growth in Ethernet switching had risen 32.7 percent, and Ethernet routing rose 11 percent. Further, 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching jumped 87.9 percent year over year, and also hit the 1 million mark for ports shipped during the second quarter of 2010. In addition, chassis switching posted the highest sequential growth of all types of Ethernet switching during the past year, according to Infonetics Research.

it may not be the sexiest play in the networking channel anymore, but it's undoubtedly a strength, whether it's the small galaxy of Cisco VARs that continue to make the category one of Cisco's most important, or the emergence of new switching competitors -- such as distributor's Ingram Micro's eyebrow-raising move into the space. A hugely competitive market, that this year grew even more so.

6. Transmissions From Washington

It was an undoubtedly historic event: the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved an order to make the white space portion of the television broadcast spectrum available for public use in wireless networks. It was the first major release of unlicensed spectrum by the FCC in nearly 25 years that could pave the way for wireless networks that can transmit data farther and more robustly. At the time of the announcement, however, wireless VARs were skeptical, saying that products to support the white space spectrum were years away, and that there are still far too many questions -- transmit one-way or two-way? power consumption? -- to warrant a real opportunity.

The other big event involving the FCC and many with a stake in the networking channel is the ongoing debate over net neutrality, especially with how battle lines are being drawn between industry leaders and the government. Expect net neutrality discussion to continue well into the new year, though it remains to see how productive that discussion will be.

7. Juniper's Jumpin'

No major networking vendor had a "we're here" year quite like Juniper, which in the span of 12 short months, demonstrated market aggression we didn't know it had, sharpened its competitive jockeying against rivals like Cisco and HP with a much more pointed tone than before, bulked up with a series of acquisitions, including this month's pickup of wireless LAN vendor Trapeze, made bold moves in mobile infrastructure, video and data center, repositioned some of its best personnel assets, including channel legend Frank Vitagliano (pictured), into roles befitting of their strengths, and fine-tuned its channel message around "the New Network."

Juniper is for real, now more than ever, and as a show of strength in how far the company's come in networking, it swiped the Annual Report Card's overall category of Enterprise Networking Infrastructure away from Cisco for the first time. Rest assured, Juniper is a major player.

8. Android Invasion

Google's Android operating system is the year's biggest mobile OS success story: faster growing than Apple's mighty iOS, and a much bigger threat to global mobile OS dominance than Symbian, BlackBerry or Windows 7.

Android may yet be an even bigger story to the larger worlds of networking and mobile devices in 2011, now that enterprise-oriented vendors like Cisco and Avaya (pictured) have come forth with Android-based tablet devices, and more and more device manufacturers are hitching their wagons to Android's star. Yes, Apple's iPhone and iPad are making enterprise inroads, and dominate on top of their all-out consumer domination. But thanks to the breadth and depth of manufacturers looking to strategize with Android as the mobile OS of choice, it's increasingly becoming Android's world.

9. My Virtualization Fabric Beats Yours

Every data networking and data center vendor wants to be called cloud-ready, and increasingly for the biggest names in the space, that means offering Ethernet switches and a network fabric that are best-enabled for the demands of virtualization. Ergo, an avalanche of releases this year.

Rest assured, you'll be hearing a lot more about Cisco FabricPath, Avaya VENA, Juniper's Virtual Chassis, Brocade's Brocade One and Virtual Cluster Switching, Extreme Networks' data center blueprint, and plenty of others.

10. "S" Is For...

Pop quiz, hot shot. Who's the vendor that finally made formal entry into the channel in 2010, is one of the most disruptive VoIP players in the world, has many consumers -- and business users -- firmly in its grasp, is often the subject of acquisition rumors, has plenty of new friends in the channel thanks to its alliances, and, oh, is headed for an initial public offering any day now?

That, friends, would be Skype, which in the span of less than three months this year, filed a form S-1 with the SEC to declare its IPO intentions, launched Skype Connect, the tool that allows users to add Skype functionality to their existing PBXes, fended off a rumor that it would be acquired by Cisco, launched a formal channel program out of its Skype for Business unit, buddied up with Avaya and stole one of Cisco's top executives, Tony Bates, to be its new CEO.

IT solution providers who thought they could ignore Skype as a pervasive influence in the past found, in 2010, that that's no longer an option.