Imagine deploying a data center refresh and having it held up by late deliveries of key network components.  Unlikely?  Unfortunately, this is the case with Cisco.

In its most recent quarterly report (10-K filed Feb 17, 2010) Cisco acknowledged that “similar to the first quarter of fiscal 2010, we experienced longer than normal lead times on several of our products in the second quarter of fiscal 2010… the longer than normal lead time extensions also stemmed from supplier constraints based upon their labor and other actions taken during the global economic downturn.”

Cisco does not own or operate the bulk of its manufacturing facilities, so when component suppliers have difficulties the supply chain is clearly affected.  To wit, Cisco’s ASA security appliance currently has a 90 day estimated lead time.  Data center switches such as the Catalyst 6500 are showing long lead times as well.

Typical product lead times from IT vendors average 5-14 business days.  While much of the recent shipping delays can be attributed to the economic contraction of 2009, other vendors are not having the same issues.  For example, Juniper Networks has 3-10 day lead times on its SRX security gateways (includes both branch and data center products).

IT network resellers speculate the problems are shortage related or, in the case of the ASA, are functionality issues linked to memory.  Whatever the case may be, companies must plan accordingly.  Having your entire network based on a single vendor is problematic.  Not only can unacceptable shipping delays be avoided, but purchasing power can be improved by introducing a second vendor.  With an end to end line of data center products, (routers, switches, firewalls, SSL VPN, WAN acceleration, Access Control, etc) Juniper Networks represents a real alternative to Cisco.