Its about convergence, stupid

Dmarti's blog over on LinuxWorld has an article up titled "Dumbest networking vendor idea since Network Access Control", which talks about what a dumb idea it is for Cisco to allow Linux apps to run on their ISR routers. Besides the fact that the title of the article alone is enough to make me want to tear this one apart, the underlying logic of the authors argument is just weak.

On one hand he talks about why would someone want to run Linux apps on a router, it is potentially bad design. On the other hand he says it is better to run them on a cheaper router alternative like Vyatta and than spouts some PR by Vyatta about their price/performance advantage over Cisco.  They back up this advantage with "3rd party testing".  Turns out the testing is by Tolly Group.  Oh, now that changes everything.  Have any of you ever had a Tolly evaluation done? Anytime you submit a form that contains what you would like to see the testing show in the final report and the final report shows it, well you know what I am saying. But seriously if it is good for Vyatta, why would it not be also good for Cisco?

Here is the real issue though that the author misses.  We live in an age of convergence!  The idea of having a stand alone box that only does routing is history and when Cisco themselves acknowledge it, you know it is fact.  People want more functionality out of their hardware.  Now that is not to say that your router should be your database server or mail server.  But there are certainly network functions that make sense to put on a router. Security is a no brainer to start. IPS, VPN, firewall, gateway AV- easy.  What about network functionality like DHCP, DNS, Radius, etc.  How about some next gen network stuff like WAP and VOIP?  That would make sense. By embracing Linux on the router all of these things and more are possible.  By the way you can do all of this now with our own Cobia platform.

That's right, we had this idea 2 years ago and have been working on it since.  With the convergence of networking, security, VOIP and wireless technologies, why wouldn't you want a multi-use box that can deliver all of this.