This IDC study provides an analysis of Canadian brand perceptions on networking vendors for 2011. Brand awareness was measured, along with perceptions of customers, against 11 criteria used for evaluating vendors when purchasing networking equipment. The customers were also studied in terms of their company size, geographical location in Canada, and industry. The purpose of the study was to discover:

• What criteria customers are using to purchase networking equipment
• How Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, HP, Huawei, and Juniper each measures up against these top buying criteria

This is a companion study of two others on server and storage brand perceptions.

"Strength of product portfolio, not purchase price, is what will make or break vendors in the network equipment space. End users are not as cost sensitive at the time of sale in this market, although the importance of ease of integration and management speaks to the importance of total cost of ownership for customers." — Dave Pearson, research manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, IDC Canada