Cisco open IOS Cisco open IOS

This caught my eye: "Cisco opening up IOS"

Mit blik blev fanget af dette: "Cisco opening up IOS"

I was cleaning out some old stuff, and the headline was on an almost-discarded scrap of paper. The story had also caught my attention back in 2007, when I printed it out, but I had since forgot all about it.

Jeg var igang med at rydde ud i nogle gamle papirer, og den overskrift stod på et næsten-kasseret stykke papir. Historien havde osse fanget min opmærksomhed tilbage i 2007, da jeg printede den ud, men jeg havde glemt den igen.

And so, it seems, has the internet.

Det samme har internet gjort, ser det ud til.

"Cisco plans to "componentize" IOS - developing only one implementation of a specific function instead of several, depending on the image - dynamically link IOS services and move the software onto a Unix-based kernel. Cisco then plans to open up interfaces on IOS to allow third-party and customer-developed applications to access IOS services." "Cisco planlægger at "komponentopdele" IOS - kun udvikle én implementation af hver funktion istedet for mange, afhængig af imaget - dynamisk linke IOS services og flytte softwaren over på en Unix baseret kerne. Cisco vil derefter åbne IOS interfaces for at give tredje-parts og kunde-udviklede applikationer adgang til IOS services."

It never happened

Det skete aldrig

There is not a lot of information to go on, but it is clear from the story that it was an important strategy for Cisco, it had support from management, and they had now gone to the press. But for some reason we never got open IOS.

Der er ikke meget information at bygge på, men det står klart at det var en vigtig strategi for Cisco, den havde ledelsens opbakning, og de var nu gået til pressen. Men af en eller anden grund fik vi aldrig nogen open IOS.

Naturally I searched for more information, and came away empty-handed. I then searched again, this time very thoroughly, and all I could find was the information that is also in the scrap of paper. To find that information, you pretty much need to know it already.

Jeg søgte selvfølgelig efter mere information men uden resultater. Jeg søgte så igen, denne gang meget grundigt, og alt hvad jeg kunne finde var den samme information der stod på papirstykket. For at kunne finde den, er man næsten nødt til at kende den i forvejen.

That made the story more intriguing to me. What happened? Why no updates on this? Why did all information seemingly fall into a black hole? I have no idea.

Det gjorde historien endnu mere spændende syntes jeg. Hvad var der sket? Hvorfor var der ingen historier der fulgte op? Hvorfor virkede det som om al information var suget ind i et sort hul? Jeg aner det ikke.

It is difficult to imagine the impact an open IOS would have had. A componentized and to some extent open sourced IOS, would have been like a stepless multivariate lego brick. In a world where it had materialized around 2010, what would networking have looked like now? What would home networks have looked like now? What would the company Cisco have looked like now? What would the competitors have looked like now?...

Det er vanskeligt at forestille sig den indvirkning en open IOS ville have haft. En komponentopdelt og i et eller andet omfang åben source IOS, ville have været som en trinløs multivariabel legoklods. I en verden hvor den var blevet virkelighed omkring 2010, hvordan ville netværk have set ud nu? Hvordan ville hjemmenetværk have set ud nu? Hvordan ville virksomheden Cisco have set ud nu? Hvordan ville konkurrenterne have set ud nu?...

Guessing what motivation Cisco had for the open IOS project, I think there might have been two main ones. The first would have been to improve conditions for internal developers. The second would have been to gain a stronger position in virtual data centers. The whole thing might have failed because it is much harder than it sounds. Maybe some of the abandoned work was later used in the Linux based IOS XE. I dont know.

Skal jeg gætte hvad Ciscos motivation var, kan jeg få øje på to ting der kunne have været vigtige. Den første kunne have været at forbedre forholdene for de interne udviklere. Den anden kunne have været at positionere sig stærkere indenfor virtuelle datacentre. Grunden til at det hele fejlede kunne have været fordi det er meget sværere end det lyder. Måske noget af det arbejde der blev lagt i det, senere blev brugt i det Linux baserede IOS XE. Jeg ved det ikke.

There is no nice conclusion to this article. I just wanted to share this small mystery with you.

Der er ikke nogen konklusion på denne artikel. Jeg havde bare lyst til at dele dette lille mysterie med dig.