Will the "I'm an all Cisco Shop" mentality stay- Gartner report suggests otherwise

Gartner recently released a report that says, in summary, Cisco's story of "simplified operations, ensured reliability and lower TCO for a network infrastructure" isn't correct in most network infrastructures that it is a good idea to introduce another vendor into your network, and as a matter of fact, when introducing another vendor (HP Procurve for example) it usually lowers TCO, simplifies operations and gives more reliability and easier management.

Here is the link to the full story of "Debunking the Myth of a Single Vendor Network"

To give a quick summary here are some points from the Gartner report.

Key Findings

• Introducing a second vendor into the network infrastructure will have no long-term impact on operational costs for organizations following best practices.

• Introducing a second networking vendor will reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for most organizations by at least 15% to 25% over a five-year time frame.

• We did not encounter one example were operational cost savings would offset the equipment cost premium that Cisco generally charges.

• Most organizations that introduced a second vendor report a lasting decrease in network complexity, compared with an all-Cisco network.

• Network operations teams that are already using some form of multivendor management tools for fault alerting, configuration management or performance management are well-positioned to take advantage of the second-vendor opportunity.

Recommendations

• Network architects and CIOs must consider alternative network vendors to ensure that they deliver a functional network solution at an appropriate cost point.

• Network operations teams should invest in multivendor-capable tools to help enable the organization to deal with a second vendor in their infrastructure, and to improve the operational capabilities with their incumbent solution.