Cisco leader in routers: Study

A study of enterprise router users released today by Infonetics Research shows Cisco Systems routs the competition in all categories except pricing and value, for which users rate 3Com, ADTRAN, Juniper, and Nortel higher than they do Cisco.

The study, User Plans for Routers, North America 2005, is based on interviews with 180 medium and large organizations from six vertical markets -- education, federal government, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail -- about their perceptions of leading enterprise router manufacturers and products, and how they select and evaluate manufacturers.

The study features user scorecards of six router manufacturers (3Com, ADTRAN, Cisco, Enterasys, Juniper, and Nortel) with ratings on overall satisfaction, pricing, value, security, technology, management features, product roadmap, financial stability, and service and support.

"Cisco continues to top respondents' short list of vendors for future router purchases, but the surprise this year is that Juniper shoots up to second, which is impressive considering they've only recently entered the market," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst at Infonetics Research.

"Cisco's vulnerability in the pricing category increased this year, with all vendors but one outscoring them, and with Juniper outscoring them on value. Still, Cisco continues to get the highest satisfaction marks overall -- almost double the votes than competitors. And more importantly, companies are not all that likely to change router vendors; in fact, they'll avoid it if at all possible", he added.