Rumble in the desert

Tom and I just got back from Interop last night. There was a great panel session that I participated in, titled "Is Routing Undergoing a Mid-Life Crisis?" The other panelists were Juniper and Cisco.

Sean Kerner from InternetNews.com happened to be there in the front row and blogged about the session:

http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/05/open-source-vs-proprietary-rou.html

The short of it is that I basically stated unequivocally (using props as you'll see in the picture in the blog post) that the emperors have no clothes. While Vyatta doesn't do everything and there are still big portions of the market where Cisco and Juniper have good solutions (high-end carrier routing, for example), if Vyatta can do the job for you (in low to upper-mid-range routing and security, for instance), we're a flat-out better solution. (And over time we'll also get to high-end carrier routing. ;-) )

Anyway, I'm going to try to dig up the audio transcript, but many people came up after the session was over to get a free Vyatta CD and told me that they thought this was the best session of the conference.

Gross Profits = Sweet Savings

This week, Cisco will be announcing its earnings again. If this is a typical quarter, Cisco will come in with approximately 63% gross profit margin. As we have discussed previously, that's a VERY high gross margin. If you're a Cisco investor, you love 63% gross margins. If you're a Cisco customer, however, you really don't love it; this means that 63 cents of every dollar you spend with Cisco is gross profit.

Never being ones to sit around idle while customers are overpaying, Vyatta decided to do something about it. Today, we announced the "Gross Profit -- Sweet Savings" promotion. All week, we'll be accepting registrations for the promotion. On Wednesday, after Cisco announces its earnings, we'll compute Cisco's gross profit margin from 1Q09 and send out a special discount code via email, good through Friday evening (Pacific time). The discount will depend on Cisco's gross margin. For instance, if Cisco announces a 63% gross margin, customers will pay 63% of list price for a Vyatta subscription (a 37% discount). All the terms and limitations are spelled out on the registration page.

So, register today and look for an email on Wednesday, after Cisco announces its gross profit margin. It's a great way to score a Vyatta subscription for less. If Cisco's investors are cheering, why can't you?