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Cisco In Social Networking? It (Sorta) Makes Sense

Cisco Systems, the world's largest network equipment company, appears to be getting a bit into social networking by today bolstering last month's purchase of Five Across with some of the pieces of Utah Street Networks. Strange? Perhaps, but not necessarily frivolous.

These investments have raised a few eyebrows and seen their share of critics. However, Cisco's really been pushing the "human network" marketing tagline over the past few months, and social networks are clearly a part of that, especially considering where how social networking could bolster Cisco's current product line.

Five Across is a platform for social networking. Utah Street creates and manages online communities on the Tribe.net social networking site with proprietary software, some of which Cisco bought. The company says the Utah Street deal "will be integrated into the Cisco Media Solutions Group, which is focused on infrastructure products to help digital media content owners improve the consumer experience."

What I see here is an opportunity to create communities based around networked content, specifically video, which is a cornerstone of the Media Solutions Group and something that can drive traffic to Cisco's routers. "People are personalizing their entertainment," former Cisco exec Mike Volpi said in an interview posted on Cisco's Web site in December. "They pick and choose it, watch it when they want to, create their own communities, rate the content."

Sure, Cisco's still early in its not-only-a-hardware-company phase with software that includes unified communications and media publishing. But Volpi had a point, and Cisco can't be left behind if it wants to provide more value than commoditized machinery. His comment and Cisco's investments lead to all sorts of possibilities: corporate media sharing, idea sharing at media companies, and even possibly some sort of social network for cable operators (Cisco owns set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta).

Still, there are a few things Cisco needs to tackle to be successful at all: Is social networking to be a feature or a product? Can you make any money off of it? Do you have any customers who are interested? Are these really the right purchases for corporate and media company-led social networks? We'll see if any of those ideas or concerns come to fruition and if Cisco's in the game for the long run, but I wouldn't count them out entirely.

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