Read an interesting article by Sean Michael Kerner today in eSecurityplanet.com.  Sean talks about the fact that both Juniper and Nortel are both OEM'ing the Q1's Radar product to help them compete against Cisco's MARS solution.  Of course Juniper and Nortel compete against each other and the logical question is how can they compete against each other with both offering an OEM of the same product.  I thought the answer by both the Juniper and Nortel folks were great and shows the strength of an OEM strategy, much like we have pursued here at StillSecure. 

Sean says that technology vendors who need to fill a need in their product line can build, buy or partner to fill that need.  It is right on.  But as Sanjay Kapoor at Juniper points out, Juniper takes the Q1 product as a starting point and builds functionality on top of that.  Nortel's Shmulik Nehama makes another point about competitors OEM'ng the same product when he says, "... this validates our choice of technology and choice of partner".  A great point.  If one of your competitors have vetted the solution and picked it over the competition, there is probably a good reason they did so. If your own analysis shows that this solution is superior, you should not "settle" for second best because a competitor is using it as well.  I think you look at how you can add value over and above the base solution.  If you are going to compete with Cisco, you are going to need the best product you can have.  Not choosing the best product because someone else has is just not a smart move! 

At StillSecure we have OEM partners in the same situation and they have arrived at the same conclusion.  Of course we have had some folks who did not OEM our solutions because of this, but at the end of the day, they wind up with a solution that is at best second rate.  Moral of the story, pick the best product you can.