On a day to day basis I work with Cisco, and with their product lines. While they don't open source their own code, they do showcase how relevant Linux is as a platform to deploy critical network systems on.

They are moving everything, from routers, to firewalls, to voice system on Linux kernels (as well as providing the proper credit). From this foundation they run their own proprietary code. Their is nothing ignorant or hostile with using and crediting open source software, while still retaining intellectual property rights to your own software.

As Cisco's CTO Padmasree Warrior has led many changes inside of Cisco.

1. Green DataCenter initiatives - She has led the charge in lowering power consumption of existing DataCenters by utilizing new technologies, as well as consolidating sites. This has a direct financial impact, as well as being good for the environment.

2. Focus on collaborative tools and teams - she has really pushed to break down the silo's between teams by providing the tools and technologies to seamlessly share information between teams.

Most importantly, she is a forward thinking technologist, not a bureaucrat. If I am going to trust anybody to drive the technical vision of the federal government, I am going to trust Padmasree.

It is like Rsync on steroids. Cisco's Wan optimization and Application Acceleration product allows you to "seed" your remote locations with files. It also utilizes some advanced technology called Dynamic Redundancy Elimination that replaces large data segments that would be sent over your WAN with small signatures.

What this means in a functional sense is that you would push that 4 Gig file over the WAN one time. Any subsequent pushes you would only sync the bit level changes. Effectively transferring only the 10 megabytes that actually changed.

While it is nice to get the propeller spinning, there is no sense reinventing the wheel.

Cisco WAAS - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5680/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html