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Broadband Access
Cisco to OEM TAZZ Networks’ Gear
Networking Vendor to Use Startup's Policy Control System
by Jim Barthold
While it seems that just about every small start-up in the industry
is latching onto an established vendor in some version of
a “partnership,” TAZZ Networks has taken the old fashioned route and
signed an OEM agreement with Cisco Systems.
TAZZ will provide Cisco with a turnkey policy control solution for
its next generation network that Cisco will re-badge as the Cisco
Broadband Policy Manager (BPM). The TAZZ equipment will help Cisco
move forward in the telecommunications triple play space.
While a vendor loses some product control and identity with an
OEM, “having a Cisco sales force behind you is not a bad thing,”
said Deb Mielke, managing director of Treillage Network Strategies.
The arrangement, she said, benefits Cisco because the giant vendor
has been lagging in the telco triple play space by taking a more
proprietary approach that has been working better in cable where
Cisco owns the lion’s share of headend space, especially with its
recent acquisition of ancient cable vendor Scientific-Atlanta.
“TAZZ can accommodate Alcatel and everybody else’s equipment where
the Cisco gear is pretty much Cisco-centric,” she said. “In the DSL
space they (Cisco) have a gap; the cable space they don’t. They have
to have something in there to work, especially if they’re going to
play in the game.”
It really wasn’t up to TAZZ how this deal went down, she added.
“I think Cisco dictates what they want to do,” said Mielke. In this
instance, “an OEM agreement gives them options.”
It also gives TAZZ a “validation in the market,” said Rich Cardone,
marketing director at TAZZ, adding “not just being an ecosystem
partner but being an OEM is a big validation and a positive for us
and the product and the solution we have.”
TAZZ’s product is an intelligent command and control layer that
provides an open framework to enable services, starting with triple
plays of voice, video and data.
“You can think of a myriad of things that you could help and enhance
to assure quality or assure proper settings … helping to make the IP
network business-ready,” Cardone said. “We’re in this new
intelligent control layer that’s being defined in IMS and TISPAN. If
you look at Cisco’s IP NGN strategy and their service exchange
framework, we’re right in that heart and what they call the service
layer.”
It might seem TAZZ would be able to leverage a bigger part of the
play, such as keeping its own product identity while working with
Cisco’s systems. That’s not how the market works, he said.
“A company of 60 people with five years of business experience is
not going to get on the approved vendors list. When you’re talking
of working with tier one carriers it’s a global game. For us it’s
(OEM) a great method to extend our reach and get into thee
accounts,” he said.
Mielke agreed that in this instance, OEM was the best way to go.
“It’s never a risk for a little guy having a big guy take you in,”
she concluded.
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