lets talk enterprise routing/switching

[spidey07]

So I'm looking at all this gobs and gobs of data. I would have thought that Cisco would carry a price premium, especially in their latest and greatest line of switches when compared to the other players.

I'm just not seeing it though. Seems from a performance, speeds, feeds perspective they are very close.

Exterme BD 10K (redundant, 180 ports 10/100/1000, 60 ports GBIC based and associated GBICs) is $328,000 LIST!!!! And we need two of them. They're 60 port 10/100/1000 blades are $40,000 list and the brain is 45K list.

While a comparable cisco 6509 with latest and greatest cards/brains is $180,000 list.

And it seems the same with access switches (summit 200-48 vs cisco 3750/2750)

Nortel as well and foundry seem the same.

Has the gear approached strictly commodity pricing? Has Cisco finally realized that they can't charge huge prices anymore?

We can leave performance out of it because I "believe" all switches can do the job they are required to do in a normal enterprise network. It seems features and investment protection would be sellers in a commodity piece of gear.

Thoughts?

 

[Garion]

I've never looked at the extreme / foundry gear, but I do know something.. Given the financial state of Nortel right now, I wouldn't touch their network gear with a 10-foot-pole. (The exception being their VPN concentrators which are the best around, IMHO).

- G

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Garion
I've never looked at the extreme / foundry gear, but I do know something.. Given the financial state of Nortel right now, I wouldn't touch their network gear with a 10-foot-pole. (The exception being their VPN concentrators which are the best around, IMHO).

- G

That's the truth.

Its sorta like talking to MCI - the bitch and moan and cry..."c'mon, give me a chance"

no way.

 

[blakeatwork]

I think it's just become a much more competetive market for the equipment. I find it's more about admin preference, or the incumbent vendor then the price today...

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: blakeatwork
I think it's just become a much more competetive market for the equipment. I find it's more about admin preference, or the incumbent vendor then the price today...

What about features? With cisco's new router lines coming out focusing on security and their network admission control initiative seems like they are getting the leg up again.

IOS is just so dang powerful that its hard for the other guys to compete. And if the gear is priced similar to others then IOS should give them a huge plus in the "pro" column. What cons are there?

 

[blakeatwork]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: blakeatwork
I think it's just become a much more competetive market for the equipment. I find it's more about admin preference, or the incumbent vendor then the price today...

What about features? With cisco's new router lines coming out focusing on security and their network admission control initiative seems like they are getting the leg up again.

IOS is just so dang powerful that its hard for the other guys to compete. And if the gear is priced similar to others then IOS should give them a huge plus in the "pro" column. What cons are there?

Hopefully its true, as they've taken a bit of a beating over the IOS source leak.. Not to mention to AiroNet's "issue" a while back.. I love IOS.. at first, it was this monolithic piece of rock that wouldn't give anything up... now that I've been taught how to use it, it's fantastic.. but only as good as the operator.. I find it odd doing stuff on home gateways now...

Adtran (Netvanta) has a clone of IOS, AND sells their gear for halfprice.. I've lost a few contracts on that alone here in Ontario.. the only con I think most SMB's (My target clients) see is the initial capital outlay, but Cisco is nice enough to facilitate financing for the client.

Heh, you said dang...