For years, Cisco has blamed the secondary market for the influx of counterfeit equipment. In reality, Cisco’s own channel has struggled to spot fake gear, while the OEM continues to avoid the topic of detection in favor of channel control rhetoric. Those of us in the secondary market for Cisco gear have tried to engage Cisco repeatedly in our mounting global counterfeit abatement effort, recognizing the continued secrecy and finger-pointing hurts Cisco end-users more than any of us.

Now, an FBI investigation called Operation Cisco Raider has uncovered a widespread distribution network of Cisco Gold and Silver channel partners that sold counterfeit gear from China to the U.S. military. What’s even more shocking is that Cisco Gold and Silver partners are considered the cream of Cisco’s large channel crop. Shouldn’t this group be able to spot bogus gear? Hasn’t Cisco’s steadfast brand protection army circled the wagons sufficiently to safeguard its partners from falling victim to counterfeiters?

The simple answer is that Cisco has spent too much time blaming the secondary or “gray” market for this problem and remains reluctant to find a proactive, cooperative solution. Cisco portrays providers of secondary-market gear as crooks and charlatans. In truth, secondary market providers are an easy target because they do not have the shield of authorized Gold or Sliver status to hide behind.

What’s also true is that leading providers of pre-owned gear deploy much stricter testing methodologies to verify equipment authenticity than most authorized resellers. Why? Because they earn credibility and customer loyalty based on the quality of the products and services they sell and support. In fact, large providers of secondary gear touch and test more products in a day than Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC) tests in a year.

That’s why the board of the United Network Equipment Dealer Association (UNEDA), the trade association that represents more than 350 dealers of pre-owned Cisco gear, has extended repeated invitations to Cisco to join its anti-counterfeit efforts. UNEDA has developed a reference guide and counterfeit abatement database to specifically help its members distinguish between legitimate and fake Cisco gear. Cisco’s insight into this effort would be invaluable and beneficial to everyone involved—yet Cisco refuses to participate.

Perhaps now that Operation Cisco Raider has captured headlines, Cisco will finally widen its focus on the counterfeit issue instead of aiming its ire squarely at the secondary market. By uncovering $3.5 million in fake products coming from both authorized and unauthorized channels, the FBI has shed light on the fact that counterfeiting is an issue that impacts all sides of the channel.

So, isn’t it time for all sides to come together in becoming part of an all-encompassing solution instead of continuing to proliferate the problem? Instead of pointing fingers at the secondary market, now is the time for Cisco to extend a hand and support what should be our shared focus: the worldwide community of Cisco end-users. Don’t end-users deserve to have confidence that when they spend their IT budgets on Cisco equipment, they are getting the real deal?

Mike Sheldon
President & CEO
Network Hardware Resale

You do not have flash or javascript support.

Average (1 vote)

Reply

Digg this
Slashdot
Reddit