Some products are not selling. Other products become obsolete after some time.
New products come to being. They require new techniques and different skill sets.
A company trying to survive in the IT world needs to lay off teams and re-invent itself every couple of years.
If you don't like it, don't work in IT, don't work in Silicon Valley.
The people that should be fired are those that are setting the strategy for the company. Do you blame the engineers for NDS, Cloud, SPVSS, or UCSs dismal sales or lack of vision? Cisco only sells it's gear because there's little alternative. Ever since AWS, Azure, Google, Taiwanese ODMs, SDN became viable alternatives, people started jumping ship.
Brutal truth- we need to fire 90% of our engineers.
At this point it doesn't matter. The failure was driven from the top and affects every engineering organization world wide so you'd have to replace the entire management chain at the same time. For those left behind doing nothing but maintenance for a rightfully angry installed base being asked to spend even more for "service revenue" rather than "working product," any skills they still had would atrophy quickly.
The one good thing Cisco is doing for itself is not killing these careers but turning them into zombies who move on to eat the brains of their competitors once laid off. You get to keep working for them without pay or a red stapler!
the best engineers have long abandoned ship. only the dregs who cant work anywhere else remain
Most products, when released don't go through a proper beta program. Meaning that bugs/feedback uncovered during the beta are incorporated into the product. Beta is just a checkbox in Cisco. Far too many products are shipped on the verge of CAP.
Cisco has a reputation of poor engineering execution and bad software.
Cisco is architected to attract and retain talented salesmen. Want respect from Cisco as an engineer? Work for a startup that is acquired by Cisco, and wait for your acquisition money to vest.
Cisco Business Model
Acquire Technology -> Sell Technology
Acquire Technology -> Sell Technology
Acquire Technology -> Destroy Technology
Acquire Technology -> Sell Technology
Acquire Technology -> Destroy Technology
Acquire Technology -> Sell Technology
its true, cisco engineers need to be either fired or held accountable, its hard to sell and support nice equipment with terrible , buggy, code. Fix engineering, other competitors stop land grab, simple.
Really a sad point of view on OP; have you ever truly sacrificed your life, for several years, to get a product off the ground and successful? Have you truly worked as a team; where the management and development team have each other’s backs, to the level that if there is a problem, the product owner can pick up the phone to the developer or support team and know that the issue will be resolved? To the level that if a teammate has a personal issue, you will freely cover for them without question, and expect nothing in return. It’s called trust; and it’s dead now. The everyday people working support, (not all of them but the good ones), will freely dedicate their lives to making the process and the product better. What has happened at Cisco is that once very evident theme of trust is broken overall…the sacrifice to free dedicating your life, 50 to 60 hours a week, being on calls as needed during vacation, working crazy hours…doesn’t really matter anymore if not connected to the now big Cisco political game; or if the person running the show for your product is a politician first; and doesn’t give a crud about you as a person…if you are truly helping. People living the belly of the beast, rowing the boat, doing the diving catch have put up barriers limiting their true abilities; because in the end they’ll be sacrificed just let any other technical sheep. It’s called trust; and it’s a cultural deception to think that it still exists the way it used to.
95% of our engineers here are all third rate or worse. Every time we get a new code release for anything, it's like "hold me" because another CAP is likely coming for my customer. Worse, is having a developer/PM or other "technical" person from a BU visit my customer because you never know what these navies are going to say. Half the time they are promising stuff they can not deliver on, or are showing roadmaps of products that will never see the light of day. Naturally, they do this to keep the conversation focused off current ailing products which are a dog's breakfast of crap code.
Brutal truth- we need to fire 90% of our engineers.
Ironic that you accuse the OP of bro g ignorant. The OP has it absolutely right. IT is fast. Companies need to evolve and change and that includes the teams that make up the companies.
The OP is correct and it's time employees wised up. Keep your skill set relevant and be prepared for no longer having a job for life.
This is a business driven by sales. The only good products are those got sold. It has nothing to do with technology and skill sets.
I ammsume you meant "brutal"? That was a pretty poor attempt.
What a load of BS. You can have a successful product fail just as much as you can have an unsuccessful product succeed. Missmanagement plays into this as much as design and implementation issues do. To think it's as black and white as this really demonstrates a level of ignorance, arrogance or simple inexperience that has caused so many issues experienced at this company. I'd ask if you remember how many products Cisco had that were ahead of the market trends that we're not capitalized on but I'm sure you'd either have no idea what I'm talking about our defend them as bad implantations even though they were out way before their major counterparts. What about how many acquisitions of "new products" that employed "new techniques" that ultimately ended up in the graveyard after Cisco got their hands on them. Were they "not selling" or "obsolete" before they even got a SKU assigned to them? Grow up.
What products are selling?