John Chambers is the master lion tamer. Whatever he says become divine law and is parroted by analysts the world over.

I've been in the networking market long enough to smell a forklift coming anytime Chambers opines. Cisco's model is driven by churning the base. It's not necessarily any better mind you, but IT managers won't get fired and the stuff will work reasonable well. I'm just not sure if there is EVER an ROI in the works. Does everybody need 10G backbones? Are there endless amounts of new business applications being added to the network? Does VoIP really offer cost savings...and is equal quality-wise to POTS?

I suppose any or all of these could be justification. I'm just wondering when the CEO is going to get curious enough to start asking the tough questions. When is enough enough?