Reports from the US say that Cisco has been increasing its focus significantly on SMB over the last year or so, launching products like the Integrated Services Router and the Catalyst Express 500 Series of switches, adding its first new distributor for a decade in the US specifically to add more VARs for this segment and flashing the cash for channel development, training, and so on.
An industry analyst commented, “The rationale for such a move is evident: first, because Cisco already reigns supreme in a good chunk of the enterprise market, so however hard it tries, growth is going to be slower there. Second, because the networking requirements of SMBs are growing, with workers requiring remote access, both wired and wireless, so there is a real market opportunity, which is something a lot of other networking vendors have also perceived.”