What brand of switches/routers does your job use?

[cpals]

Since I've started at my job we've slowly been phasing out our old nortel switches and putting in Cisco switches. Any new site that goes up has a Cisco 2821 router and a 3750 switch.

Also, we pay Embarq a yearly fee (probably huge, don't know though) for maintenance on the hardware and anything pretty much to do with them. They configure them for new sites, setup new protocols, etc.

So I was talking to a guy that I've recently met and was discussing our setup with him and he was surprised that we are buying all Cisco equipment. He has Cisco for their backend routers and switches, but HP for their IDF (user) switches, etc. I guess HP has a lifetime warranty on their equipment so he buys a few spares and is able to swap them out easily and then just RMA the bad one. He also maintains all of his equipment so they don't have to pay for any maintenance fees except for like SmartNET and whatever HP has.

I'm not up to his level where I can maintain our equipment without Embarqs help, but I'm getting there... slowly doing more things myself. Also, our jobs are local govt related so his big push is because of what he's doing he is saving tax payers money, etc.

Is it a waste of money to go all Cisco or how does your job do it? I'm just looking for comments and to get an idea how other places do it.

Thanks!

 

[Jamsan]

We're doing a huge revamp now and getting rid of all of our EOL Cisco Routers/PIX and all of our (ack) Dell switches. Price being a concern, we'll probably be doing Cisco only for the routers, DMZ switches, and core switches. We're looking at HP for the edge switching. We're looking at both Cisco and Juniper for VPN and firewall solutions (price being just about the same).

We also like HP for the edge as there is a high density of ports and like your colleague is doing, we plan on just using the standard free NBD replacement warranty from HP and just keeping a few spares on hand in case one goes bad.

 

[jlazzaro]

Cisco everywhere...we use a lot of advanced edge layer features, and HP just doesnt cut the mustard. besides, no one ever got fired for going Cisco

 

[cpals]

I like the idea of saving some money by going with HP and actually being able to keep a few spares on hand. Only thing that I would be concerned with is programming them... are the commands very different than Cisco? I've only worked on Cisco switches/routers and would like to keep going forward without having to relearn how another company programs their stuff.

 

[cpals]

Also, what HP switches are you looking at?

 

[cmetz]

cpals, it depends on the site and budget.

When cost is no object, new switches are Cisco. They're overpriced and underengineered, but their current products are solid. Extreme used to be preferred for cost-is-no-object, but their new products aren't interesting.

When cost is an object, new switches are SMC. They work well for no-frills managed switches and they have a great warranty. Dell used to be a good choice too, but their new products aren't interesting and I'm just sick and tired of dealing with what Dell calls "customer service."

When cost is no object, routers are Juniper or Cisco. Juniper wins on engineering for high-end carrier use, but sometimes business considerations trump engineering considerations. Juniper doesn't have much low-end carrier or any enterprise penetration, that's all locked up by Cisco.

I've seen all sorts of wacky router/switches. Most of them are trouble and the first thing you should do is nuke 'em.

I can't think of any reason why I'd ever buy HP switches. I can get the same thing from SMC for a lot cheaper.

 

[Jamsan]

Originally posted by: cpals
Also, what HP switches are you looking at?

We're deciding between the 3500yl-48G-PWR and 5412zl chassis for our edge. If we don't go HP for the edge and do get approved budget wise for Cisco, we'd go either 3560 or 3750.

 

[Brovane]

The shop where I work at is all Cisco on the IT side. We are also a ISP so on the Engineering side there is a mixture of Foundry, Cisco and Juniper. Most of the Juniper and Foundry stuff is on the national backbone side. IT is exclusively Cisco and there equipment has been rock solid for us.

 

[spidey07]

Cisco for router/switches. Juniper/netscreen/nokia for firewalls.

Every bid I've ever done Cisco and everybody else comes in at the same price. It's somewhat a commodity and everything is priced the same if you compare apples to apples.

 

[SpunkyJones]

On my VOIP side of things, its primarily Cisco switches/routers in the core and on the edge.