Reliable sources tell me that Cisco is undergoing a huge internal transformation now that Chuck Robbins is in charge. I haven’t been able to see any evidence of this transformation and have been wondering when customers would see the results.

Cisco Enterprise was presenting at Network Field Day 11 and this particular presentation from Cisco Enterprise talks about the IOS-XE code being merged into a single release train.

That vast, explosive sighing sound you hear is the engineers voclising their relief on getting back hundreds of hours every year that we spend looking up code trains. Cisco has a baffling array of code, and each one has bugs, feature and functions unique and specific to that train.

Yes, customers have been asking for this for decades. And we finally have some progress. Watch the video:

The EtherealMind View

You will notice just how confusing the delegates find this presentation and how many questions are asked to try and clarify this. Cisco IOS is the most popular networking operating with confusing array of choices, platforms, and arcane product development. In the real world, customers waste hundreds of work hours evaluating IOS code trains in order to determie which is best for their needs, performing bug scrubs and validation. Less code trains should reduce this workload.

I’m very pleased to see product convergence like this but wonder why Cisco took so long to answer what has been constant customer request. Everyone in the room agrees that this is long overdue.

Finally, I’m concerned that if something happens in the C-suite (seemingly unlikely today) that the current executive focus on streamlining is lost. Its possible that we could end up with MORE code trains instead of less.

A focussed, streamlined and transparent IOS-XE code release strategy is very welcome.