Cisco Rethinks 'Cloud' Service After Customer Outcry

Cisco has adjusted its approach to a "cloud service" that helps manage its home routers, responding to an outcry from customers.

Cisco has adjusted its approach to a "cloud service" that ties into its home routers, responding to an outcry from customers.

With a blog post, the company now says that it will change the settings on two of its home wireless routers -- the EA4500 and the EA2700 -- so that they no longer default to the company's Cloud Connect service, a way for customers to manage their routers over the net.

Last month, the company updated embedded software on the two routers so that users were automatically shuttled to Cloud Connect -- as opposed to local software -- when they tried to manage the devices. Some users objected because the tool's terms of service seemed to step on not only their privacy, but their right to look at porn on the internet.

This little tempest in a teacup was a nice metaphor for Cisco's efforts to stay relevant in the age of cloud computing.

In late June, the company told users they were free to move their routers to an earlier version of the embedded software, or firmware, so that they wouldn't default to Cloud Connect. But it has now gone further, changing the setting on the routers so that they default to local management software even without a firmware change.

"We believe lack of clarity in our own terms of service has contributed to many of our customers’ concerns, and we apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused," reads a blog post from Brett Wingo, Cisco's vice president of networking. "We take responsibility for that lack of clarity, and we are taking steps to make this right."

Wingo says that although the routers pushed users to Cloud Connect, they always could always opt out of the service. And he says that Cisco Connect Cloud and its routers "do not monitor or store information about how our customers are using the Internet," that the company does not arbitrarily disconnect customers from the internet, and that the Connect Cloud service has "never monitored customers’ Internet usage, nor was it designed to do so."

According to Wingo, Cisco will soon update its terms of service to make all of this clear.

Image: Flickr/camknows