Cisco's John Earnhardt endorses purchasing gray market hardware with embedded software

"We regularly buy our competitors' equipment for testing and to independently verify some of their technical claims. This is a common practice by most IT vendors. Additionally, these purchases also help us ensure that our intellectual property is protected."

New York City:   Fri, 8/1/14 - 10:45pm    View comments
 

Earlier today a work colleague brought to my attention the following CRN story:

In The Shadows: The Rise And Fall Of Torrey Point

In the story, Cisco's Director of Corporate Communications, John Earnhardt, clearly endorses the purchase of gray market hardware with embedded software:

"We regularly buy our competitors' equipment for testing and to independently verify some of their technical claims. This is a common practice by most IT vendors. Additionally, these purchases also help us ensure that our intellectual property is protected."

CRN continued:

"At the same time Torrey Point was generating massive sales and earning glowing praise from Juniper, it was engaged in an elaborate scheme with Juniper's primary competitor: Cisco. According to documents obtained by CRN from the Los Angeles Superior Court, Torrey Point was secretly selling new Juniper equipment to Cisco, a violation of the Juniper partner agreement that eventually led to Torrey Point's de-authorization as a Juniper solution provider.

"The documents show dozens of purchase orders and invoices totaling millions of dollars of Juniper equipment that was originally procured by Torrey Point and then sold to Cisco through another company, PHW International. PHW, however, is not an authorized Juniper reseller. In fact, it's not a reseller of any kind."

CRN added:

"In some cases, Torrey Point, through PHW, sold Juniper products to Cisco that were still in beta or pre-release phases and were not yet commercially available, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter. While the majority of product Torrey Point sold to Cisco through PHW was from Juniper, the solution provider also shipped equipment from two of its other vendor partners, Arista Networks and Alcatel-Lucent. According to the documents, PHW moved more than $2 million worth of Juniper, Arista and Alcatel-Lucent products to Cisco in 2011 alone."

I mean, am I the only one who finds it hypocritical that Cisco spends millions of dollars purchasing gray market hardware with embedded software for itself while simultaneously warning its own customers not to the same thing?

Related stories:

CRN: In The Shadows: The Rise And Fall Of Torrey Point

Is it illegal to buy or sell gray market Cisco hardware with embedded software?
 

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