Why Cisco?
Why do i keep focusing so much on Cisco, when there are clearly alot of different vendors out there with similar products and technologies?
There are several reasons for this.
1) I began the professional part of my networking career with Cisco.
2) Cisco has a proven track record when it comes to education and learning.
3) Even though not always the best match for all use-cases, Cisco is a big player in almost all areas of networking.
4) The networking opportunities provided by Cisco is by far the best of what ive seen. Take for example the Cisco Learning Network.
5) Cisco Press is really awesome in my opinion. They have alot of really high quality books out there.
6) Great opportunities to interact with the company. By this i mean to participate in programs like Cisco Champions and different SME (Subject Matter Expert) related activities.
7) Cisco documentation is not perfect, but its hands down the best I’ve seen across multiple vendors.
8) And ofcourse Cisco Live! 🙂
That being said, recently i have begun to take a more neutral look at technologies. The reason being, that in this day and age, proprietary technologies become less prefered than open and standardised ones. This means that more interopability is possible, and to understand the big picture one cannot rule out other players.
All in all, i see alot of value in leaning towards Cisco. At least thats my outlook on things at the moment.