Cisco goes big in Japan with Fujitsu deal

Cisco Systems has sealed an alliance with Fujitsu in a bid to boosts its Japanese market presence. Under the terms of the deal, Fujitsu will act as a reseller for Cisco's high-end routing systems.

At the centre of the agreement stands Cisco's ultra high end Carrier Routing System (CRS-1) launched six months ago. The device is aimed at telecoms providers and large enterprises.

Although few companies will actually use its potential 92Tbps for today's applications, such data rates are deemed essential for delivering the multimedia services of tomorrow.

Cisco is the largest routing vendor in Japan, but is struggling to sell to large accounts. The agreement gives it access to some of Fujitsu's large Japanese enterprise and telecoms customers, according to Suraj Shetty, marketing director at Cisco's routing technology group.

Due to the high population density, Japan is one of the fastest growing markets for broadband in the world, and therefore considered a key market for Cisco's CRS-1.

In a separate announcement, Cisco yesterday unveiled that Softbank BB, the bandwidth provider for Yahoo Broadband in Japan, is to purchase the CRS-1 to build out its network.

The Fujitsu deal will give Cisco some much-needed credibility in the Japanese market, noted Jeff Ogle, principal analyst at Current Analysis.

"If you are going to be successful long term within a country, you need to become totally immersed. [Cisco is currently] being perceived as Cisco selling in Japan. It needs to be perceived more as a Japanese company," he said.

Fujitsu is competing with Cisco in the market for enterprise routers, but is lacking a carrier-grade high end product like the CRS-1.

The partnership allows Fujitsu to quickly fill a void in its product line by offering the CRS-1 to its customers.

With the advent of next-generation broadband applications, such a solution is critical to serve large accounts, according to Ogle.

"If you don't have that, you will be a secondary option for your customers, and only after they have chosen the core," he said.

A spokesperson for Fujitsu in the US declined to comment, referring all questions to the company's office in Japan.