(By Info-Tech Analyst Mark Tauschek– Printed with permission from Processor magazine, www.processor.com)
How Dominant Is Cisco?
The numbers are telling, and Cisco is dominant not only in terms of market share, but also in terms of customer loyalty. Of the 20 clients I interviewed, 12 (or 60%) selected Cisco as their LAN infrastructure vendor, and 11 of the 12 Cisco shops did not even evaluate other vendors. Comments from loyal Cisco shops included, “I'm a big fan of competitive analysis. There are very few things I do without taking a look at the landscape and seeing what's out there. But when it comes to the Cisco, I don't look around,” and, “I think it [Cisco] was the safe bet.”
Info-Tech's survey data mirrored the interview responses, with 59% of 112 respondents selecting Cisco as their primary LAN infrastructure vendor. Of the 59% that selected Cisco, roughly one-third did not consider any other vendors. The remaining 41% of the market is shared by 10 vendors, with the second-place vendor taking 12% of the market. These figures reinforce Cisco's widely known dominance of the LAN infrastructure market.
