The Best Routed Town In The World

March 11, 2013 4:41 PM

"Marmet, West Virginia is a town of 1,500 people living in a thin ribbon along the banks of the Kanawha River just below Charleston." Thanks to recommendations by Cisco, The Marmet Public Library has a $15,000+ Cisco 3945 router, capable of handling network loads far in excess of the library's requirements. However, Marmet is less well-routed than the 491 residents of Clay, WV, who now have seven 3945 routers within .44 miles of each other. Auditors claim procuring the unneeded equipment caused the State to waste millions of dollars. Cisco defends specifying these machines for purchase: "the criticism of the State is misplaced and fails to recognize the forward-looking nature of their vision."
posted by the mad poster! (16 comments total)

Cisco has offered to 'take back' routers it sold to West Virginia if the state finds they are inappropriate for its needs.

Of course, it's an utter scandal Cisco did this in the first place.
posted by dunkadunc at 4:47 PM on March 11, 2013

Cisco defended itself by saying it had drawn up a complete spreadsheet of its proposed bid, and the state had reviewed it. If it didn't need or want these features, or if it thought the routers were too large, it should have said so.

Cisco--while behaving in a totally douchebaggery manner--is not the only entity at fault here. There should be some sort of state oversight.
posted by leftcoastbob at 4:52 PM on March 11, 2013

Not this again.

God I hate being an enterprise network engineer. I see no problems with this purchase, and as a matter of fact I think it was a smart thing to do. A solid network group could completely democratize west virginia's communications backbone with an infrastructure like that.

But that requires, um, vision or something or other mumble mumble I'll go back into my cave now and shut up...
posted by roboton666 at 4:54 PM on March 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

Double.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 4:55 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Even if they needed something with that much capacity they could have done it at a quarter of the price with adtran gear.
posted by empath at 4:56 PM on March 11, 2013

roboton666, the report specifically suggests the money should have been used for more fiber instead of the routers. Wouldn't more connectivity be a better way to democratize West Virginia's communications infrastructure?
posted by the mad poster! at 4:57 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Who can ever trust them again? Sorry, we don't deal with vendors who look for easy marks instead of partners. If I can't trust your pre-sales engineer to give me an honest quote, that's time and money out the window while our in-house talent or contractor is doublechecking their work for the "gotcha"... why bother with that baloney?
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:58 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

"the forward-looking nature of their vision."

I am so totally stealing that and figuring out how to use it in the next memo I write.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:58 PM on March 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

My feelings remain the same as when I wrote my "promoted comment" at the bottom of the linked article:

"Forward-looking nature of their vision" my ass! ... Certainly, the state officials who bought this stuff deserve a fair share of the blame, but Cisco deserves the most contempt in my eyes. There's a moral obligation for those of us with more knowledge of technology to not swindle the hell out of those less knowledgeable. That doesn't mean that salespeople shouldn't sell their products or that it's wrong to portray things in the best light for your employer, but wantonly taking advantage of the State to the tune of $5M+ is unconscionable.

The Marmet library is a prefab tailor that probably cost less than the $15,000 router it now contains. The state should have realized they were being swindled and insisted on using the money responsibly, but the majority of the blame has to go to Cisco, who certainly knew what they were doing and was in the best position to make fair and appropriate recommendations to their customer.
posted by zachlipton at 4:58 PM on March 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

roboton666, the report specifically suggests the money should have been used for more fiber instead of the routers. Wouldn't more connectivity be a better way to democratize West Virginia's communications infrastructure?

That's what I was thinking. Vision is putting in a new double-tracked rail line, not building a two-story passenger terminal.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:59 PM on March 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Double. We've talked about this here before.
posted by mrbill at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2013

There is no such thing as "fair and appropriate" when shareholder values are at stake. Cisco has a duty to enrich it's shareholders and nothing more.

A little grand larceny here and there shouldn't get in the way of that. You might even say we live in the Age of Criminal Capitalism.
posted by Avenger at 5:01 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

And it's still hard for some technocapitalists to see why everyone doesn't unquestioningly open up and swallow down their futurist utopian candies...
posted by threeants at 5:02 PM on March 11, 2013

Cisco did nothing wrong here. Anyone would have milked that lucrative government contract. It was the government's job to make sure they were getting value for money, and they failed.

You can't have efficient economic transactions unless both parties exercise diligence and look out for their own interests. Cisco played their part well. The government couldn't be bothered to do the same.
posted by foobaz at 5:06 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Double. We've talked about this here before.

The story isn't new, but the state auditor's report is.
posted by dhartung at 5:07 PM on March 11, 2013

Sure, more fiber everywhere.
posted by roboton666 at 5:10 PM on March 11, 2013