Robert,
This a splendid advise both to parents, teachers, industrialist and students.
However, I tend to believe that the idea is not new. The question is why are people glued to vendor specific courses,
Cisco has conquered the world through a superb marketing strategy. To oust them thus requires a radical strategy that I leave for the listers to deliberate on

On Fri Jun 3rd, 2011 6:07 AM PDT robert yawe wrote:

>Hi Listers,
>
>I have always said that it is wrong to train IT students on proprietary system
>as is happening with Cisco training that is being offered as a career path.
> Switching and routing principles are based on an open standard so students need
>to have an appreciation of the technology and not a brand.
>
>I have been having an interesting exchange with Safaricom on setting up a
>connection to their SMSC where their engineers insist that the solution can only
>be implemented using a Cisco router.
>
>From this experience it is clear that most of the engineers at Safaricom have
>been trained on vendor specific and proprietary standards which has denied them
>the flexibility to work with none Cisco equipment.
>
>Safaricom has been a proponent of open systems by being open to various
>handsets, so it is shocking that as they move towards becoming a data service
>provider they are opting to close their systems.
>
>This attitude by Safaricom reminds me of Orange and their Livebox fiasco that
>totally killed their broadband service yet all they had to do was allow any DSL
>compliant equipment to be used on their network and used the funds tied in
>equipment on advertising and any other activity.
>
>I hope this is just a hiccup in their transition and that we shall see a more
>open minded organisation as they move towards being a serious contender in the
>corporate data provision service.
>
>For those of you with children or relatives basing their carriers
>on proprietary technologies please advice them to acquire generic education as
>well otherwise they might find opportunities passing them by, its the principles
>that matter.
> Robert Yawe
>KAY System Technologies Ltd
>Phoenix House, 6th Floor
>P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
>Kenya
>
>
>Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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