When it comes to shopping for a solution to fit a company’s specific technology needs, it can be difficult to find a vendor whose products fit all of their requirements. When customers work with ESI, they don’t have to compromise. Because we work with multiple vendors, we offer our customers the best solutions to all their needs. We match their needs to the appropriate vendor instead of forcing their needs to fit a vendor’s offerings.
For networking solutions, ESI is certified to sell four different networking vendor’s products – Cisco, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Brocade and Meraki, a wireless only vendor. As a general rule, our lead in the networking arena is with Cisco Systems switches, routers, firewalls/VPN products, Wireless LANs and identity based systems (NAC). We do acknowledge, however, that other vendors have excellent products with unique features that can make them a viable alternative to a Cisco-only solution. This is true, especially in an economy where customers are trying to do more with less.
CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
Cisco’s strategy is to assist customers in achieving a single-vendor solution by offering everything from the server (Cisco UCS) to the Data Center Network (Nexus and MDS), through the core and edge of the network (Catalyst) and out to the desktop (Unified Communications and Collaboration). This Cisco utopia comes with a price tag, but when integrated properly, it can act as a cohesive system with “one number to call” support. This eliminates the finger pointing that can occur in multi-vendor networks. Most existing Cisco customers agree the stability and reliability they receive is well worth paying a little more.
HEWLETT-PACKARD
HP saw Cisco spreading out into their domain with Cisco’s introduction of their Unified Computing System (UCS) in March of 2009 and set out to expand their networking product line by acquiring 3Com/H3C last April (2010). Now, HP has declared war on Cisco and is aggressively attacking the network infrastructure and data center markets with a combination of their ProCurve products and 3Com/H3C products. At first glance, the 3Com acquisition put both companies on equal ground, covering almost identical markets. HP also has storage solutions, however, and since the acquisition, they have announced discontinuing development on their IP Telephony product line (3Com VCX). Another product that came with the 3Com acquisition was TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). This is a highly rated IPS, which has won many speed and functionality awards through the years.
The third networking vendor ESI supports is Brocade. Unlike Cisco and HP, Brocade is content with a pure networking portfolio (no telephony or servers) and focuses on High Performance switches and routers at a reasonable price.
BROCADE
Similar to HP, Brocade stresses a conformance to standards and away from proprietary protocols. Brocade’s product line includes Core and access layer switches, which have very high throughput numbers, and Data Center networking, which include Fiber Channel switches, converged (FCoE) switches and pure IP Ethernet switches for iSCSI connectivity. Brocade also introduced what they call an Ethernet Fabric Switch (VCX) last year that combines concepts from Fiber Channel fabric switches and IP based Ethernet switches and support a new IETF standard called TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links). This layer 2 protocol supports load sharing and millisecond failover on redundant paths, eliminating the need for Spanning Tree.
MERAKI
Finally, in the Wireless LAN market, ESI has picked up Meraki Wireless products that have Cloud-based controllers, rather than the customer having to purchase individual controllers depending on the number of AP’s they have at a site. For SMB customers, this is a very cost effective solution and allows them to get into 802.11 a/b/g/n at a reasonable price. Meraki works great for small remote offices.
The bottom line for ESI’s customers is that our design engineers can craft a solution based on a customer’s specific needs, rather than trying to fit a single vendor’s product capabilities into their environment -- therefore, saving money and optimizing a solution for them.
ESI’s Business Development Manager, Jim Tucker, has been in the industry for more than 25 years, spending time at Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, Cisco and Brocade before coming to ESI. He has been with ESI for the last year and a half and works with the sales team to drive networking business across all of the ESI offices, as well as managing part of the sales staff in the Virginia Beach office.
