“Internet of things” connected devices at the network edge are giving fresh pains to legacy technology companies and startups alike. It may at first seem that a younger, edgier (no pun intended) company is best equipped to tackle the challenge. But here comes the elder shaman of network ills Cisco Systems Inc. assuring, “I’ve got this.”

Cisco’s hardware legacy may look like baggage to the cloud-native, cool crowd in Silicon Valley. But its install base gives Cisco enviable staying power.

“No one’s going to rip out Cisco and replace it. There’s nothing else to replace it with,” said John Furrier (@furrier, pictured, right), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. Cisco basically owns the network, he pointed out.

“The other thing people don’t know about Cisco that’s a competitive advantage is, they know the edge of the network. They’ve been doing edge computing since it existed,” Furrier added.

During this week’s Cisco Live event in Barcelona, Spain, Furrier and co-host Stu Miniman (@stu, pictured, left) explained why Cisco must bet on the edge.

Measuring up in software

Exending its existing expertise on the edge to IoT use cases, like connected cars, won’t be too much of a stretch for Cisco, according to Furrier. Further, as the company integrates deeper with cloud-based IoT platform Jasper Technologies Inc., which it acquired in 2016, wireless capabilities will enrich its IoT strategy.

“That will be a game changer,” Furrier said.

Cisco’s Intent-Based Networking delineates its vision of programmable, automated networks for IoT. And IoT at scale is simply not feasible without such a network, Furrier explained. “The number of devices that are coming on the network cannot be physically managed by people,” he said.

The folks who manage the network do not have the time to fuss over devices, Miniman agreed. “It’s, ‘How do I let the machine learning, the programmability help me in this environment, because it’s only going to get more complicated,'” he said.

Cisco, however, needs to lean in on software before it can claim equal new-school relevance with public clouds. “I’m not ready to anoint Cisco as a winner in the new world,” Miniman said. “If you say, ‘OK, how are they doing on the transition to becoming recurring revenue rather than boxes, they still have quite a ways to go.'”

The edge should be a 24/7 obsession for Cisco if it wants a place among the new guard, according to both Furrier and Miniman. “Without the IoT edge, Cisco could crumble,” Furrier concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Cisco Live Barcelona 2018.

Photo: SiliconANGLE