Except they've acquired A LOT of companies running C and A LOT of companies running J, you'd think they'd at least have the same process for the similar setups, but they don't.
Shane On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 10:42 AM Matthew Petach <mpet...@netflight.com> wrote: > > > On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 7:19AM Mike Hammett <na...@ics-il.net> wrote: > >> [...] >> I've never understood companies that acquire and don't completely >> integrate as quickly as they can. >> > > > Ah, spoken with the voice of someone who's never been in the position of: > a) acquiring a company not-much-smaller-than-you that > b) runs on completely different hardware and software and > c) your executives have promised there will be cost savings after the > merger due to "synergies" between the two companies. > ^_^; > > Let's say you're an all J shop; your scripts, your tooling, everything > expects to be talking to J devices. > > Your executives buy a company that has almost the same size network--but > it's all C devices running classic IOS. > > You can go to your executives and tell them "hey, to integrate quickly > with our network and tooling, we need to swap out all their C gear for J > gear; it's gonna cost an extra $50M" > The executives respond by pointing at c) above, and denying the request > for money to convert the acquired network to J. > > You can go to your network and say "hey, we need to revamp our tooling and > systems to understand how to speak to C and J devices equally, in spite of > wildly different syntaxes for route-maps and the like-it's going to take 4 > more developer headcount to rewrite all the systems." > The executives respond by pointing at c) above, and deny the request for > developer headcount to rewrite your software systems. > > The general result of acquisitions of similar-sized companies is that the > infrastructure runs in parallel, slowly getting converted over and unified > as gear needs to be replaced, or sites are phased out--because any other > course of action costs more money than the executives had promised the > shareholders, the board, or the VCs, depending on what stage your company > is at. > > Swift integrations cost money, and most acquisitions promise cost savings > instead of warning of increased costs due to integration. > > That's why most companies don't integrate quickly. :( > > Matt > >
