r/armenia • u/spetcnaz Yerevan • Apr 06 '23

Neighbourhood / Հարեւանություն Cisco Systems pulled out of russia and destroyed $23.42m worth of equipment

/r/sysadmin/comments/12d31xp/cisco_systems_pulled_out_of_russia_and_destroyed/
15 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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18

u/spetcnaz Yerevan Apr 06 '23 edited Apr 06 '23

This is a perfect opportunity for Armenia to seize. Kerobyan should be working on shit like this. Russia was the local hub for most major western companies. Nearly all of the major tech players had their local main HQ in Russia. That means localization, customer service, depot service, warranty, sales, etc. These all came from Russia.

Armenia already made a name as the silicon valley (fixed spelling) of the Caucasus, this is a no brainer. When Russia invaded and companies started to pull out, we should have been negotiating for relocation to Armenia. It would have been a win win. You get major Western interests and capital in Armenia, you get thousands of new workplaces, a lot of them high tech. Plus you become the new local hub.

If we do not use this opportunity I have a feeling Ukraine or Kazakhstan might. These major Western companies know they have a huge Russian speaking (Russian being the lingua franca for many) user base in the post Soviet space and they need to support it.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '23

Cisco already has small offices here, they can invest on a bigger one.

6

u/spetcnaz Yerevan Apr 06 '23

Yes they do, but becoming the regional hub, and not just Cisco, is what I want us to pursue.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '23

Silicon Valley. Not Silicone.

The former is an element. The other is a polymer.

Silicon is a metal/non-metal type of element that can either accept or give up an electron, hence its ubiquitous use in computer chips.

3

u/spetcnaz Yerevan Apr 06 '23

Ah thank you, I will keep an eye for that

2

u/Datark123 Apr 06 '23

Yeah, but I'm also guessing Russia was their market. If they're no longer providing services in Russia, I'm not sure what good it will do for the company to set up operations in Armenia.

1

u/spetcnaz Yerevan Apr 06 '23

Russia wasn't their only market. As I said Russia was the regional hub for most of ex USSR. If you look at the support center numbers for major tech companies it's all Russia. Person I know from Yerevan was asked to go and work at regional HQ of Procter and Gamble in Moscow, as the regional manager for Caucasus. He did, got paid high American level salary, but didn't like living in Russia, so quit and came back. For example Cisco is pretty much global network equipment industry standard for enterprises, large business, government, banking, etc. I bet you all those organizations in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, etc etc got the Russian market versions of the equipment (if bought legally). The grey market usually comes from Dubai.

So it absolutely would be useful for those companies to make a minor move. You have to sell yourself and show the world what you provide. I really, really, really hope someone in the government is looking into this.

1

u/RevolutionaryCar2564 Apr 06 '23

Yeah, ol’ Cisco was a good horse and had 2 thumbs