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The 3Com Saga
prostoalex writes "A flashback to 5 years ago reveals 3Com as a global multi-billion dollar company, respected and revered around the world. Today Bob Metcalfe's creation is a money-losing $2 billion dollar operation trying to find its niche. The 3Com Saga from Network World magazine takes a look at the history of 3Com Corp."
Simple. People stopped using dialup and 3Com couldn't keep up in the NIC card market. But seriously, 3Com used to make some very high quality modems when I first started getting into the internet.
Never shoulda given up Palm...remember when Palm's were all subranded US Robotics, and then 3Com?
Actually, I'm kinda talkin' outta my a$$ here...I have no idea if selling Palm was a good business decision or not. I just know I've always like PalmOS, and 3Com used to get some advertising every time I put my PDA on its cradle...
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I also remember a time when Telus was in the process of dumping 3Com ADSL modems for DLink of all companies, because DLink made a better business case (read better price) for a product that was 99.9% as reliable as the 3Com product.
So to sum it all up I think that 3Com sort of let things get away by simply not keeping up with the economy of computing, not the raw technology. They still have all kinds of respect in the industry, they just have to re-learn how to sell themselves.
That really is my homepage, no kidding.
As much as I have to agree with you, I now regret my Linksys purchases. I should have gone with D-Link or Netgear.
I've had to stop using Linksys cards in all my Windows machines because the poor drivers would bluescreen *every* time I ran a particular class of network-intensive application (ie: P2P stuff like BitTorrent). FreeBSD is quite happy with the hardware (higher quality drivers?), but suffice to say that the quality of Linksys' own drivers is very, very poor.
And the little Linksys router I've had for a while locks up after running for a couple of days in full DHCP mode - it's fine with a manual IP configuration, but that's not exactly convenient so I'm about to replace it with a D-Link router if the latest BIOS update doesn't fix the problem.
Good point, but once they do they will cease to be 3Com, and would more accurately be called "Faceless Holding Group Company of No Discernable Character".
At that point you are right - anybody with a finance degree and a bit of capital can and will compete with them. And probably win.
3Com was a tech company once, but now it is losing its identity.
That's a very damning look at 3com... customers are supposed to be one of the most important things to a company (because if they're not happy, what're they going to do? Not come back, that's what) but the article insinuates that they dumped them like a cart full of wrinkled potatoes.
I still like their products... or did like their products, I'm not sure how this outsourcing will affect their quality of goods. It seems like they're stripping away the one thing that people still like about them.
Oh well. I wish them luck.
----- Wtcher Dragon, UDIC
The differentiating aspect of tech firms is that many have huge cash hordes from the .com bubble that will sustain long past their expected expiration date. Sun for example will take at least a decade to die given their cash horde, notwithstanding their inability to generate profits.
"Why would you buy a network card when nearly every mainboard has one built-in? And even the chipsets are losing to Intel..."
Because the add-on can do things that the built-in can't e.g. hardware cryptography (VPN, RIAA, hint, hint).
Typically an onboard chip/network card will use more proccesor and memory resources then a regular add in card, while the performance will vary, I have noticed that 3com's 3c905 series will off load the most and will be the fastest with the least amount of extra resource draw.
Most people won't even think twice about using an onboard nic. I don't really blame them. but in a windows 2000 domain with active directory switching nics from a built in 3com to an add on 3com had users thinking they got a new workstation. The speed difference was especially noticed when using aplications that reside on the server and have to check back in everytime data is changed or needed.
Just somethign to think about when using the on board nics. If a little extra performance would be nice or needed.
Cisco vs. 3com:
Recently I found out that our NBX call processor software has a DOS vulenerability. It wasn't a real big deal since the call processor isn't accessible via the internet, but since i'm a good network admin, I want to patch the box anyway. I go to 3com's website thinking I can download the updated code right? - Wrong. I had to call my "authorized reseller" and get the code from them. This just gave my reseller an excuse to come visit me and try to sell me more crap.
Cisco, on the other hand, makes you buy a yearly support contract (not too expensive), and they give you access to their TAC site. Login to TAC, download updated software, install updated software - done.
I'm a corporate customer and I like Cisco's method of support. I suspect alot of 3com customers feel the same.
3com are you listening? I don't want to call a salesperson every time I need to patch a box!
-ted
Their "Open" phone system that uses the H3 protocol which is published just where??? (rumor is at MIT -- anyone want to hunt for it?)
It also seems that all the version of the NBX software up to 4.1.21 have GPL code in them and you can prove it by just asking it. To upgrade to a version where 3com isn't illegally using GPLed code, you have to buy another license. Keep in mind that 3com was one of the few IT compaines that supported the DMCA. Maybe its because the DMCA helps hide the fact they are using open source software without following the terms of its licenses. Details are here.
One other nice thing about their new license scam is once your dealer goes under, your out of luck and when 3com can't find the prior license, you get to rebuy all them all over again. Too bad the best source for info on it NBX Group has given up on the product and is bailing out.
One thing to consider in this, though, are the newer crop of GigE cards that are integrated in the northbridge. Intel and Nvidia's newer chipsets are shipping with these sorts of chips, as they start to realize the same thing Apple did a while back: GigE plus anything disk intensive can and will max out a traditional 32-bit 33mhz PCI Bus. I dig 3Com products as much as the next guy, but I'll be damned if they could produce a worthwhile Northbridge assembly.
As a side note, their cards are also ridiculously expensive compared to the stuff that a lot of other manufacturers offer, and as has already been pointed out, the other stuff is sufficient for 98% of the jobs.
I used to work for 3Com as a tech support bob; I was one of the people laid off in 2000 when they wimped out of the medium and big-end market.
It was a pretty strange day; we got in to work as normal, only to hear wild rumours about the US HQ EOL-ing entire families of projects - including some brand new ones like the Corebuilder 9000 (and some ancient ones like the Netbuilder II).
We were told that there was an announcement downstairs; at which point they laid out the whole gory mess to us; massive layoffs, company shrinkage and retreat-in-confusion from the majority of 3Com's market areas.
As tech support, we were given three months' notice with the possibility of moving to support small hubs and low-end kit (not exactly a challenging prospect!); what most of our lot did was get straight on the phone to ex-colleagues working for Cisco.
What really got us down over the next week or so was speaking to customers. There were multi-billion dollar customers who we knew well and got on with; and 3Com's sales people had been selling them new Corebuilders the week before; suddenly, they had no upgrade path, they'd invested millions of pounds uselessly, and they were not happy with us. A couple of the bigger companies were demanding that Eric Benhamou fly over in person and tell them exactly why 3Com had sold them something one week and discontinued it the next.
(The understanding customers at least told us that they didn't blame us for random acts of management; but it still wasn't fun for us; the company we were a part of was pissing all over our customer base, and we were at the front line as public-facing employees.)
There were days during my four years at 3Com when announcements went round that made my blood run cold. The USR merger was one; 3Com putting an NT server (on a blade) in a switch was another; but the biggest one by far was The Day We Wimped Out.
I think 3Com as a company deserves a graceful death. I still insist on their NICs (which are rock solid and have never given me a day's grief); but I have no need or desire for any of their other products.
The whole Huawei tie-up is another Bad Idea, IMHO. I've had to try and configure one of those things; the interface was terrible (it was just post-Cisco-lawsuit), the hardware was laughably unreliable (bad mainboard *and* two bad interface cards) and customer support (at least in the UK) was pretty much non-existant.
Eventually, we ripped it out and replaced it with a Cisco. If 3Com are relying on rebadged Huawei kit to recapture their share of the market, then I think they're on a hiding to nothing, and the 3Com name will take another nasty dent.
They had it; they blew it.
Gideon.
My father in law works for Unisys.
Unisys' real strength at this point is that they employ smart people at the consulting level. They don't really innovate. However, they are a big name in the business, and when you need a solution to a problem and you want it done yesterday, regardless of the cost, you call Unisys. They can move the technological earth for you.
Amusing anecdote.
A couple of years ago, when my not-yet-then father in law was working his way up the consulting chain, he ended up being the go-to guy for MBNA's head office. If you don't know who they are, someday look at where your credit card offers come from in the mail - chances are 1 of 3 comes from Wilmington, Deleware. That's MBNA - they are the elite of the super-rich credit card companies.
So anyway, MBNA used to use Sprint for their internet connection. And we're talking massive bandwidth - this is for credit card processing, so it's multiple fiber pipes, OC-3 size each, if not bigger - and they have to be up 5 nines percent or better. So, this is a multi-hundred-million dollar contract with Sprint.
So, one day, MBNA's connection goes down. And they're losing money, to the tune of something like ten thousand dollars a second. My father in law, who's name is Mike, is called in. They're on the phone with sprint, and nothing's happening - sprint promises to look into the problem and do line testing, and call them back within 24 hours. This is obviously unacceptable. Everyone's running around, mass chaos, cats sleeping with dogs, etc. The scenario ends with the C.E.O., the VP of something, and Mike, and a few more underlings of both MBNA and Unisys in a confrence room. The CEO has the VP call sprint, and work his way up to talking to the highest guy he can get ahold of in their tech department. He asks how long it will be, gets an answer, and hangs up the phone. He looks at the CEO and says, "They say it will be 12 hours".
The CEO looks at Mike, and says, "Switch it to AT&T."
Mike calls AT&T (through Unisys channels - and when Unisys calls, people listen). AT&T has locals there in 10 minutes, and people on planes from New York in 20. They move heaven and earth have it up and running in 2 hours.
Anyway, all that is to say, Unisys isn't dead - they've just shifted into a different market - being the power behind the consulting. From what I've seen, though, they (and a lot of other companies out there) tend to hire people, use them for a few years, and let them go before they get too many raises.
~Will
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